The Activities of the Gelsolin Homology Domains of Flightless-I in Actin Dynamics

Flightless-I is a unique member of the gelsolin superfamily alloying six gelsolin homology domains and leucine-rich repeats. Flightless-I is an established regulator of the actin cytoskeleton, however, its biochemical activities in actin dynamics are still largely elusive. To better understand the biological functioning of Flightless-I we studied the actin activities of Drosophila Flightless-I by in vitro bulk fluorescence spectroscopy and single filament fluorescence microscopy, as well as in vivo genetic approaches. Flightless-I was found to interact with actin and affects actin dynamics in a calcium-independent fashion in vitro. Our work identifies the first three gelsolin homology domains (1–3) of Flightless-I as the main actin-binding site; neither the other three gelsolin homology domains (4–6) nor the leucine-rich repeats bind actin. Flightless-I inhibits polymerization by high-affinity (∼nM) filament barbed end capping, moderately facilitates nucleation by low-affinity (∼μM) monomer binding, and does not sever actin filaments. Our work reveals that in the presence of profilin Flightless-I is only able to cap actin filament barbed ends but fails to promote actin assembly. In line with the in vitro data, while gelsolin homology domains 4–6 have no effect on in vivo actin polymerization, overexpression of gelsolin homology domains 1–3 prevents the formation of various types of actin cables in the developing Drosophila egg chambers. We also show that the gelsolin homology domains 4–6 of Flightless-I interact with the C-terminus of Drosophila Disheveled-associated activator of morphogenesis formin and negatively regulates its actin assembly activity.