01:146:295 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Intermediate Filament, Nuclear Membrane, Axon Terminal
17 Jun 2020
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Document Summary
The cytoskeleton is the cell"s skeleton in that it provides structure and stability for the cell. However, it also provides highways for transport and it is highly dynamic (constantly changing). They are only 3 cytoskeleton elements they are the intermediate filaments, microtubules and actin filaments (microfilaments). Actin filaments appearance rope like structure hollow tube two string of beads coiled togethers size intermediate diameter ~10 widest diameter. The rope like structure of the intermediate filaments is formed by 2 long protein monomers coiling together to form a dimer. Then two sets of dimers are coiled to form a tetramer. The dimers are put together in opposing direction one c terminal strand lines up with a n terminal strand of another strand. This causes intermediate filament to be uniform throughout its structure. A total of eight tetramers are put together to form the intermediate filament. The main function of the intermediate filament is to provide mechanical strength to cells.
