Figure 2.

Steady-state network morphology and structure show decreased mobility and increased connectivity of actin networks with increasing R. Images shown are a collapsed time-series of networks taken on an A1R confocal microscope with a 60× objective (Nikon, Melville, NY). Each image is a sum of 2700 frames captured over 3 min (15 fps). 1% of actin filaments in the network are labeled with Alexa-568 to resolve network and filament structure and dynamics. As shown, as R increases, the time-averaged images have more contrast and less Brownian noise demonstrating that filament mobility is suppressed as R increased. Images also demonstrate that all networks are largely homogeneous. Zoomed-in network images in insets show network architecture at the scale of single filaments. Note that minimal bundling is observed.