About TPM / Tropomyosin:
Tropomyosin (TPM) is a two-stranded, coiled coil, alpha-helical protein, which can be found in actin-based cytoskeletons.
TPM Function
All organisms have organelles that ensure cells have physical integrity. Collectively, these kinds of organelles are known as the cytoskeleton. This is one of the oldest systems that focuses on the protein actin’s filamentous polymers.
Tropomyosin, which is a polymer of a second protein, is imperative in most actin filaments found within animals.
Tropomyosin represents a big family of integral components of actin filaments, which play a chief role when it comes to the regulation of the function of actin filaments, in both non-muscle and muscle cells.
Tropomyosin Structure
These proteins feature a homo-dimer or a coiled coil, rod-shaped hetero-dimer, which lies along the a-helical groove in the majority of actin filaments.
The length of the actin filament is where the interaction takes place, with the dimers being aligned in a head-to-tail manner.
TPM Types
There are two groups which tropomyosins tend to be categorized into; non-muscle tropomyosin isoforms and muscle tropomyosin isoforms.
Muscle tropomyosin isoforms are part of the regulation of the interactions between myosin and actin in the muscle sarcomere. They play a chief role when it comes to muscle contraction regulation.
On the other hand, non-muscle tropomyosin isoforms function in all cells, including both non-muscle and muscle cells. They play a part in a wide range of cellular pathways, helping in terms of controlling and regulating the cytoskeleton of the cell, as well as a number of other significant cellular functions.