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Intermediate filaments (IFs) are cytoskeletal components found in the cells of many animal species.〔Karabinos, Anton, Dieter Riemer, Andreas Erber, and Klaus Weber. "Homologues of Vertebrate Type I, II and III Intermediate Filament (IF) Proteins in an Invertebrate: The IF Multigene Family of the Cephalochordate Branchiostoma." FEBS Letters 437.1-2 (1998): 15-18. Web.〕 They are composed of a family of related proteins sharing common structural and sequence features. Intermediate filaments have an average diameter of 10 nanometers, which is between that of 7 nm actin (microfilaments), and that of 25 nm microtubules, and they were initially designated 'intermediate' because their average diameter is between those of narrower microfilaments (actin) and wider myosin filaments found in muscle cells.〔 Most types of intermediate filaments are cytoplasmic, but one type, the lamins, are nuclear. == Structure == The structure of proteins that form IF was first predicted by computerized analysis of the amino acid sequence of a human epidermal keratin derived from cloned cDNAs. Analysis of a second keratin sequence revealed that the two types of keratins share only about 30% amino acid sequence homology but share similar patterns of secondary structure domains. As suggested by the first model, all IF proteins appear to have a central alpha-helical rod domain that is composed of four alpha-helical segments (named as 1A, 1B, 2A and 2B) separated by three linker regions.〔 The N and C-termini of IF proteins are non-alpha-helical regions and show wide variation in their lengths and sequences across IF families. The basic building-block for IFs is a parallel and in-register dimer. The dimer is formed through the interaction of the rod domain to form a coiled coil. Cytoplasmic IF assemble into non-polar unit-length filaments (ULF). Identical ULF associate laterally into staggered, antiparallel, soluble tetramers, which associate head-to-tail into protofilaments that pair up laterally into protofibrils, four of which wind together into an intermediate filament. Part of the assembly process includes a compaction step, in which ULF tighten and assume a smaller diameter. The reasons for this compaction are not well understood, and IF are routinely observed to have diameters ranging between 6 and 12 nm. The N-terminal "head domain" binds DNA. Vimentin heads are able to alter nuclear architecture and chromatin distribution, and the liberation of heads by HIV-1 protease may play an important role in HIV-1 associated cytopathogenesis and carcinogenesis. Phosphorylation of the head region can affect filament stability. The head has been shown to interact with the rod domain of the same protein. C-terminal "tail domain" shows extreme length variation between different IF proteins. The anti-parallel orientation of tetramers means that, unlike microtubules and microfilaments, which have a plus end and a minus end, IFs lack polarity and cannot serve as basis for cell motility and intracellular transport. Also, as opposed to actin or tubulin, intermediate filaments do not contain a binding site for a nucleoside triphosphate. Cytoplasmic IF do not undergo treadmilling like microtubules and actin fibers, but they are dynamic. For a review see: (). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Intermediate filament」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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