Results: Purified GFP–actin was capable of copolymerizing with actin. In the transfected cells of D. discoideum studied, GFP–actin made up 10–20 % of the total actin. Microfilaments containing GFP–actin were capable of generating force with myosin in an in vitro assay. Observations of single living cells using fluorescence microscopy showed that the fusion protein was enriched in cell projections, including filopodia and leading edges, and that the fusion protein reflected the dynamics of the microfilament system in cells that were freely moving, being chemotactically stimulated, or aggregated. When confocal sections of fixed cells containing GFP–actin were labeled with fluorescent phalloidin, which binds only to filamentous actin, there was a correlation between the areas of GFP–actin and phalloidin fluorescence, but there were distinct sites in which GFP–actin was more prominent.
Conclusions: Double labeling with GFP–actin and other probes provides an indication of the various states of actin in motile cells. A major portion of the actin assemblies visualized using GFP–actin are networks or bundles of filamentous actin. Other clusters of GFP–actin might represent stores of monomeric actin in the form of complexes with actin-sequestering proteins.