Lifeact: a versatile marker to visualize F-actin
Open accessAbstract
Live imaging of the actin cytoskeleton is crucial for the study of many fundamental biological processes, but current approaches to visualize actin have several limitations. Here we describe Lifeact, a 17-amino-acid peptide, which stained filamentous actin (F-actin) structures in eukaryotic cells and tissues. Lifeact did not interfere with actin dynamics in vitro and in vivo and in its chemically modified peptide form allowed visualization of actin dynamics in nontransfectable cells.
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LifeactGFP FRAP confirms increased actin recovery in Cyfip1+/− neurons.
“Similar results were also obtained using LifeactGFP, an F-actin-specific fluorescent probe suitable for FRAP experiments.42 Photobleaching spines expressing LifeactGFP produced a significantly greater amount of recovered fluorescence in Cyfip1+/− neurons compared with WT again by 40 s (WT: 67.9±4.8%, Cyfip1+/−: 85.5±7.0%, P<0.05; Figure 4d) resulting in a significant increase in the total mobile”
From The autism and schizophrenia associated gene CYFIP1 is critical for the maintenance of dendritic complexity and the stabilization of mature spines (2014) · cites this paper as [43]
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“To overcome this problem, we used Lifeact-EGFP (Riedl et al., 2008, 2010), a fusion protein comprised of an F-actin binding domain and EGFP, to visualize the ring-like F-actin structure in transfected RGCs (Fig.”
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- Authors
- Riedl, J., Crevenna, A. H., Kessenbrock, K., Yu, J. H., Neukirchen, D., Bista, M., Bradke, F., Jenne, D., Holak, T. A., Werb, Z., Sixt, M., & Wedlich-Soldner, R.
- Affiliations
- Max Planck Society (DE)
- University of California, San Francisco (US)
- Corresponding author
- Sixt, Michael
- Venue
- Nature Methods
- Published
- 2008-06-08
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 605-607
- ISSN
- 1548-7091 (ISSN-L)
- 1548-7105
- PMC
- PMC2814344
- OpenAlex
- W1968272833
- Cited by
- 2,189
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 86 · 2025: 107 · 2024: 102 · 2023: 103 · 2022: 120 · 2021: 159 · 2020: 152 · 2019: 140 · 2018: 154 · 2017: 146 · 2016: 143 · 2015: 160 · 2014: 158 · 2013: 135 · 2012: 126
- FWCI
- 28.72
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature Methods (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (submittedVersion)
- Max Planck Digital Library (submittedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- University of California, Santa Cruz
- National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (P01AI053194)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cell Biology › Cellular Mechanics and Interactions
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Biophysics › Advanced Fluorescence Microscopy Techniques
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Biophysics › Cell Image Analysis Techniques
- Keywords
- Lifeact, actin cytoskeleton, live-cell imaging, actin dynamics, chemically modified peptides
- MeSH terms
- Actins, Animals, Cells, Cultured, Cytoskeleton, Coloring Agents, Humans, Microscopy, Fluorescence, Peptides, Recombinant Fusion Proteins, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Staining and Labeling, Green Fluorescent Proteins, Mice, Rats
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