Actin nucleation: spire - actin nucleator in a class of its own

Abstract

The rate limiting step for actin filament polymerisation is nucleation, and two types of nucleator have been described: the Arp2/3 complex and the formins. A recent study has now identified in Spire a third class of actin nucleator. The four short WH2 repeats within Spire bind four consecutive actin monomers to form a novel single strand nucleus for 'barbed end' actin filament elongation.