beta-Actin

By Christina Towers, PhD.

Actin is a fundamental component of the cytoskeleton, where it has the ability to create and break down actin filament formation in response to various cell needs.  Actin has six highly conserved isoforms, however beta and gamma actin are the two isoforms that are highly and ubiquitously expressed in the cell.  For this reason, measuring beta-actin levels has served as a useful control in research experiments in order to have a baseline of protein expression to compare cell manipulations to.  However, beta actin has other implications in scientific research aside from acting

Western blotting is one of the most commonly used antibody assay techniques in cell and molecular biology research since its development over three decades ago, and is considered the gold standard for protein detection and quantification.

Beta-Actin is a highly conserved protein involved in cell growth, cytoskeletal and extracellular support structures and cell migration. Because beta-Actin is ubiquitously expressed in all eukaryotic cells, it is frequently used as a loading control for assays involving protein detection, such as Western blots.

Actin is the widely studied and ubiquitous cytoskeletal protein capable of forming dynamic microfilament structures. These filaments are essential for diverse cellular functions including cell shape, migration, cytokinesis, and intracellular trafficking (1). Actin is present in three main isoforms: alpha, beta, and gamma. These globular actin isoforms (G-actin) assemble into dynamic filamentous polymers called F-actin. This process is highly regulated by various actin-binding proteins that affect the stability, organization, and depolymerization of F-actin (1).

The Western blot is one of the most commonly used antibody assay techniques in cell and molecular biology research since its development over three decades ago, and is considered the gold standard for protein detection and quantification. The traditional Western blot can be a labor-intensive and time-consuming process, leading many researchers to seek an alternative method that is more efficient, reproducible and quantitative.