ABSTRACT
Interaction with Dynamic Actin .........................................................34 2.6 Probing the Nature of Cortical Actin .............................................................34
2.6.1 The Stable Cortical Actin Mesh .........................................................34 2.6.2 Dynamic Actin Filaments! ................................................................. 35
In 1972, Singer and Nicolson proposed the uid mosaic model of the plasma membrane of a eukaryotic cell. This was based on an equilibrium picture of interactions between membrane components, where the uid bilayer composed of lipids acts as a “solvent” for proteins. Although not expressed explicitly, this conception of the membrane precludes any long-range order or large-scale lateral heterogeneities.1 However, given the compositional diversity of membrane components (up to at least 1000 lipid and protein species), it would not be entirely unrealistic to assume the existence of a mosaic-like pattern of proteins and lipids based on random uctuations of the local concentration of individual molecular species.
