NOVEL ACTIN CROSS-LINKER SUPERFAMILY MEMBER IDENTIFIED BY A 2-STEP DEGENERATE PCR PROCEDURE

Actin-crosslinking proteins link F-actin into the bundles and networks that constitute the cytoskeleton, Dystrophin, beta-spectrin, alpha-actinin, ABP-120, ABP-280, and fimbrin share homologous actin-binding domains and comprise an actin crosslinker superfamily, We have identified a novel member of this superfamily (ACM) using a degenerate primer-mediated PCR strategy that was optimized to resolve less-abundant superfamily sequences, The ACF7 gene is on human chromosome 1 and hybridizes to high molecular weight bands on northern blots, Sequence comparisons argue that ACF7 does not fit into one of the existing families, but represents a new class within the superfamily,