Unidirectional Transport of HMM coated Particles on Fascin crosslinked F-actin Arrays

Actin-myosin system plays an important role in biological transport and it can be utilized for various applications: delivery, sorting, and powering microdevices in in vitro. A key of harnessing this powerful and efficient system is directional control. To perform directional control, unipolar F-actin arrays were created on a substrate. Biotinylated gelsolin was used as a tool to anchor F-actin on the streptavidin coated surface. To prevent nonspecific binding of F-actin on the surface, blocking agents were employed. In presence of a flow field, anchored F-actin was aligned and fascin helped forming F-actin arrays on the surface. When unipolar F-actin arrays were created, HMM coated particles were successfully moved along F-actin arrays at approx. 1.3 mu m/s. This technique will provide constructive information for the future applications of transport and actuation systems using actin-myosin at nanoscale.