Fascin is a 54-58kDa monomeric actin filament bundling protein originally isolated from sea urchin egg but also found in Drosophila,[1] vertebrates[2] including man. Actin is a globular roughly 42-kDa Protein found in all eukaryotic cells (except for Nematode sperm where it may be present at concentrations of Proteins are large Organic compounds made of Amino acids arranged in a linear chain and joined together by Peptide bonds between the Carboxyl Sea urchins are small globular spiny sea cat animals composing most of class Echinoidea. [3] Fascin (from the Latin for bundle) is spaced at 11nm intervals along the filament. The bundles in cross section are seen to be hexagonally packed this and the longnitudinal spacing is compatible with a model[4] where fascin cross-links at alternating 4 and 5 actins. It does seem likely that it may be most closely related to the fimbrin/plastin group since it is, like them, calcium insensitive, monomeric and close in apparent molecular weight.
Fascin binds b-catenin,[5] a molecule that is not only part of cell-cell adhesion, but is also part of the wnt signalling pathway. It has been proposed that fascin reduces the cytplasmic pool of soluble b-catenin and so would be expected to act as an anti-oncogene.
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