Kovar Lab

Anderson, C.A., Kovar, D.R., Gardel, M.L., and Winkelman, J.D. (2021). LIM domain proteins in cell mechanobiology. Cytoskeleton, 1-9. 

Winkelman, J.D.*, Anderson, C.A.*, Suarez, C., Kovar, D.R., and Gardel, M.L. (2020). Evolutionarily diverse LIM domain-containing proteins bind stressed actin filaments through a conserved mechanism. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 117(41), 25532– 25542. (PubMed) 

Mancl, J. M., Suarez, C., Liang, W. G., Kovar, D. R., and Tang, W.-J. (2020) Pseudomonas aeruginosa exoenzyme Y directly bundles actin filaments. J. Biol. Chem. (PubMed)

Ajeti, V., Tabatabai, A. P., Fleszar, A. J., Staddon, M. F., Seara, D. S., Suarez, C., Yousafzai, M. S., Bi, D., Kovar, D. R., Banerjee, S., and Murrell, M. P. (2019) Wound healing coordinates actin architectures to regulate mechanical work. Nature Physics. (PubMed)

Christensen, J. R., Craig, E. W., Glista, M. J., Mueller, D. M., Li, Y., Sees, J. A., Huang, S., Suarez, C., Mets, L. J., Kovar, D. R., and Avasthi, P. (2019) Chlamydomonas reinhardtii formin FOR1 and profilin PRF1 are optimized for acute rapid actin filament assembly. MBoC. (PubMed)

Freedman SL, Suarez C, Winkelman JD, Kovar DR, Voth GA, Dinner AR, Hocky GM (2019). Mechanical and kinetic factors drive sorting of F-actin cross-linkers on bundles. PNAS (PubMed)

Christensen JR*, Homa KE*, Morganthaler AN, Brown RR, Suarez C, Harker AJ, O’Connell ME, Kovar DR (2019). Cooperation between tropomyosin and α-actinin inhibits fimbrin association with actin filament networks in fission yeast. Elife (PubMed)

Harker AJ, Katkar HH, Bidone TC, Aydin F, Voth GA, Applewhite DA, Kovar DR (2019). Ena/VASP processive elongation is modulated by avidity on actin filaments bundled by the filopodia crosslinker fascin. Mol Biol Cell. (PubMed)

McCall PM, Srivastava S, Perry SL, Kovar DR, Gardel ML, Tirrell MV (2018). Partitioning and enhanced self-assembly of actin in polypeptide coacervates. Biophys J. 114(7):1636-1645. (PubMed)

Zimmermann D, Homa KE, Hocky GM, Pollard LW, De La Cruz EM, Voth GA, Trybus KM, Kovar DR (2017). Mechanoregulated inhibition of formin facilitates contractile actomyosin ring assembly. Nat Commun. 26;8(1):703. (PubMed)

Suarez C, McCall PM, Gardel ML, Kovar DR (2017). When Is “Enough” Enough? Cell Syst. 24;4(5):480-482. (PubMed)

Burke TA, Harker AJ, Dominguez R, Kovar DR (2017). The bacterial virulence factors VopL and VopF nucleate actin from the pointed end. J Cell Biol. 216(5):1267-1276. (PubMed)

Christensen JR, Hocky GM, Homa KE, Morganthaler AN, Hitchock-DeGregori SE, Voth GA, Kovar DR (2017). Competition between Tropomyosin, Fimbrin, and ADF/Cofilin drives their sorting to distinct actin filament networks. Elife. (10;6). (PubMed)

Suarez C, Kovar DR (2016). Internetwork competition for monomers governs actin cytoskeleton organization. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. (12) 799-810. (PubMed)

Winkelman JD, Suarez C, Hocky GM, Harker AJ, Morganthaler AN, Christensen JR, Voth GA, Bartles JR, Kovar DR (2016). Fascin- and α-Actinin-Bundled Networks Contain Intrinsic Structural Features that Drive Protein Sorting. Curr Biol. 26(20):2697-2706. (PubMed)

Li Y, Christensen JR, Homa KE, Hocky GM, Fok A, Sees JA, Voth GA, Kovar DR. (2016). The F-actin bundler α-actinin Ain1 is tailored for ring assembly and constriction during cytokinesis in fission yeast. Mol Biol Cell. 1;27(11):1821-33. (PubMed)

Alberico EO, Zhu ZC, Wu YF, Gardner MK, Kovar DR, Goodson HV. (2016). Interactions between the Microtubule Binding Protein EB1 and F-Actin. J Mol Biol. 428(6):1304-14. (PubMed)

Zimmermann D, Morganthaler AN, Kovar DR, Suarez C. (2016). In Vitro Biochemical Characterization of Cytokinesis Actin-Binding Proteins. Methods Mol Biol. 1369:151-79. (PubMed)

Heisler DB, Kudryashova E, Grinevich DO, Suarez C, Winkelman JD, Birukov KG, Kotha SR, Parinandi NL, Vavylonis D, Kovar DR, Kudryashov DS  (2015). ACTIN-DIRECTED TOXIN. ACD toxin-produced actin oligomers poison formin-controlled actin polymerization. Science. 349(6247):535-9. (PubMed)

Zimmermann D, Santos A, Kovar DR, Rock RS (2015). Actin age orchestrates myosin-5 and myosin-6 run lengths. Curr Biol. 25(15):2057-62.(PubMed)

Olshina MA, Angrisano F, Marapana DS, Riglar DT, Bane K, Wong W, Catimel B, Yin MX, Holmes AB, Frischknecht F, Kovar DR, Baum J (2015) Plasmodium falciparum coronin organizes arrays of parallel actin filaments potentially guiding directional motility in invasive malaria parasites. Malar J. 14:280. (PubMed)

Haase S, Zimmermann D, Olshina MA, Wilkinson M, Fisher F, Tan YH, Stewart RJ, Tonkin CJ, Wong W, Kovar DR, Baum J (2015) Disassembly activity of actin-depolymerizing factor (ADF) is associated with distinct cellular processes in apicomplexan parasites. Mol Biol Cell. 26(17):3001-12. (PubMed)

Bezanilla M, Gladfelter AS, Kovar DR, Lee WL (2015) Cytoskeletal dynamics: a view from the membrane. J Cell Biol. 209(3):329-37. (PubMed)

Suarez, C., Carroll, R.T., Burke, T.A., Christensen, J.R., Bestul, A.J., Sees, J.A., James, M.L., Sirotkin, V.¹, and D.R. Kovar¹. (2015) Profilin regulates F-actin network homeostasis by favoring formin over Arp2/3 complex. Dev Cell. 32, 43-53. [¹Contributed Equally] (*Featured on the cover of Developmental Cell). (PubMed)

Rotty, J.D., Wu, C., Haynes, E.M., Suarez, C., Winkelman, J.D., Johnson, H.E., Haugh, J.M., Kovar, D.R., and J.E. Bear. (2015) Profilin-1 serves as a gatekeeper for actin assembly by Arp2/3-dependent and -independent pathways. Dev Cell. 32, 54-67. (*Featured on the cover of Developmental Cell). (PubMed)

Bestul, A.J.¹, Christensen, J.R.¹, Grzegorzewska, A.P., Burke, T.A., Sees, J.A., Carroll, R.T., Sirotkin, V., Keenan, R.J., and D.R. Kovar (2015) Fission yeast profilin is tailored to facilitate actin assembly by the cytokinesis formin Cdc12. Mol Biol Cell. 26, 283-93. [¹Co-first authors] (PubMed)

Winkelman, J.D., Bilancia, C.G., Peifer, M., and D.R. Kovar (2014) Ena/VASP Enabled is a highly processive actin polymerase tailored to self-assemble parallel-bundled F-actin networks with Fascin. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 111, 4121-6. (PubMed)

Davies, T., Jordan, S.N., Chand, V., Sees, J.A., Laband, K., Carvalho, A.X., Shirasu-Hiza, M., Kovar, D.R., Dumont, J., and J.C. Canman. (2014) High-resolution temporal analysis reveals a functional timeline for the molecular regulation of cytokinesis. Dev Cell. 30, 209-23. (PubMed)

Kang, Y., Jelenska, J., Cecchini, N.M., Li, Y., Lee M.W., Kovar, D.R., and J.T. Greenberg (2014) HopW1 from Pseudomonas syringae disrupts the actin cytoskeleton to promote virulence in Arabidopsis. PLoS Pathog. 10, e1004232. (PubMed)

Bilancia, C.G., Winkelman, J.D., Tsygankov, D. Nowotarski S.H., Sees, J.A., Comber, K., Evans, I, Lakhani, V., Wood, W., Elston, T.C., Kovar, D.R., and M. Peifer (2014) Enabled negatively regulates diaphanous-driven actin dynamics in vitro and in vivo. Dev Cell. 28, 394-408.(PubMed)

Burke, T.A., Christensen, J.R., Barone, E., Suarez, C., Sirotkin, V.¹, and D.R. Kovar¹ (2014) Homeostatic actin cytoskeleton networks are regulated by assembly factor competition for monomers. Curr Biol. 24, 579-85. [¹Contributed Equally] (PubMed)

Wong, W., Webb, A.I., Olshina, M.A., Infusini, G., Tan, Y.H., Hanssen, E., Catimel, B., Suarez, C., Condron, M., Angrisano, F., Nebi, T., Kovar, D.R., and J. Baum. (2014) A mechanism for actin filament severing by malaria parasite actin depolymerizing factor 1 via a low affinity binding interface. J. Biol Chem. 289, 4043-54. (PubMed)

Heym, R.G., Zimmermann, D., Edelmann, F.T., Israel L., Ökten, Z. Kovar, D.R., and D. Niessing. (2013) In vitro reconstitution of an mRNA-transport complex reveals mechanisms of assembly and motor activation. J. Cell Biol. 203, 971-84. (PubMed)

Coffman, V.C., Sees, J.A., Kovar, D.R., and J-Q. Wu (2013) The formins Cdc12 and For3 cooperate during contractile ring assembly in cytokinesis. J. Cell Biol. 203, 101-14. (*Featured on the cover of J. Cell Biology). (PubMed)

Bohnert, K.A., Grzegorzewska, A.P., Willet, A.H., Vander Kooi, C.W., Kovar, D.R., and K.L. Gould. (2013) SIN-dependent phosphoinhibition of formin multimerization controls fission yeast cytokinesis. Genes Dev. 27, 2164-77. (PubMed)

Bohnert, K.A., Willet, A.H., Kovar, D.R., and K.L. Gould. (2013) Formin-based control of the actin cytoskeleton during cytokinesis. Biochem Soc Trans. 2013 Dec;41(6):1750-4. Review. (PubMed)

Madasu, Y., Suarez, C., Kast, D.J., Kovar, D.R., and R. Dominguez (2013) Rickettsia Sca2 has evolved formin-like activity through a different molecular mechanism. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 110, E2677-86. (PubMed)

Falzone, T.T., Oakes, P.W., Sees, J., Kovar, D.R.¹, and M.L. Gardel¹ (2013) Actin assembly factors regulate the gelation kinetics and architecture of F-actin networks. Biophys J. 104, 1709-19. [¹Contributed Equally] (PubMed)

Falzone, T.T., Lenz, M., Kovar. D.R.¹, and M.L. Gardel¹. 2012. Assembly kinetics determine the architecture of a-actinin crosslinked F-actin networks. Nat Commun. 3, 861. [¹Contributed Equally] (PubMed)

Scott, B.J., Neidt, E.N., and D.R. Kovar. 2011. The functionally distinct fission yeast formin isoforms have specific actin assembly properties. Mol Biol Cell. 22, 3826-39. (PubMed)

Skau, C.T., Courson, D.S., Bestul, A.J., Winkelman, J.D., Rock, R.S., Sirotkin, V., and D.R. Kovar. 2011. Actin filament bundling by fimbrin is important for endocytosis, cytokinesis and polarization in fission yeast. J Biol Chem. 286, 26964-77. (PubMed)

Namgoong, S., Boczkowska, M., Glista, M.J., Winkelman, J.D., Rebowski, G., Kovar, D.R., and R. Dominguez. 2011. Mechanism of actin filament nucleation by Vibrio VopL and implications for tandem W domain nucleation. Nat Struct Mol Biol. 18, 1060-7. (PubMed)

Kovar, D.R., Sirotkin, V., and M. Lord. 2011. Three’s company: the fission yeast actin cytoskeleton. Trends Cell Biol. 21, 177-87. (PubMed)

Wong, W., Skau C.T., Marapana D.S., Hanssen E., Taylor N.L., Riglar D.T., Zuccala E.S., Angrisano F., Lewis H., Catimel B., Clarke O.B., Kershaw N.J., Perugini M.A., Kovar D.R., Gulbis J.M., and J. Baum. 2011. Minimal requirements for actin filament disassembly revealed by structural analysis of malaria parasite actin-depolymerizing factor 1. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 108, 9869-74. (PubMed)

Skau, C.T., and D.R. Kovar. 2010. Fimbrin and tropomyosin competition regulates endocytosis and cytokinesis kinetics in fission yeast. Curr Biol. 20, 1415-22. (PubMed)

Haglund, C.M., Choe, J.E., Skau, C.T., Kovar, D.R., and M.D. Welch (2010) Rickettsia Sca2 is a bacterial formin-like mediator of actin-based motility. Nat Cell Biol. 12, 1057-63. (*Featured on the cover of Nature Cell Biology). (PubMed)

Kovar, D.R., Bestul, A.J., Li, Y., and B.J. Scott. 2010. Formin-mediated actin assembly. In Actin-based motility: Cellular, molecular and physical aspects. M.F. Carlier, ed. (Springer Netherlands), pp. 279-316. (Springer)

Rizvi, S.A., Liu, S., Chen, Z., Skau, C.T., Pytynia, M., Kovar, D.R., Chmura, S.J., and S.A. Kozmin. 2010. Rationally simplified bistramide analog reversibly targets actin polymerization and inhibits cancer progression in vitro and in vivo. J Am Chem Soc. 132, 7288-90. (PubMed)

Rizvi, S.A., Neidt, E.M., Cui, J. Feiger, Z., Skau, C.T., Gardel, M.L., Kozmin, S.A., and D.R. Kovar. 2009. Identification and characterization of a small molecule inhibitor of formin-mediated actin assembly. Chem Biol. 16, 1158-68. (*Featured article on the cover of Chemistry & Biology) (PubMed)

Skau, C.T., Neidt, E.M., and D.R. Kovar. 2009. Role of tropomyosin in formin-mediated contractile ring assembly in fission yeast. Mol. Biol. Cell. 20, 2160-73. (PubMed)

Neidt, E.M., Scott, B.j., and D.R. Kovar. 2009. Formin differentially utilizes profilin isoforms to rapidly assemble actin filaments. J. Biol. Chem. 284, 673-84. (PubMed)

Ezezika, O., Younger, N.S., Lu, J., Kaiser, D.A., Corbin, Z.A., Nolen, B.J., Kovar, D.R., and T.D. Pollard. 2009. Incompatibility with formin Cdc12p prevents human profilin from substituting for fission yeast profilin: insights from crystal structures of fission yeast profilin. J. Biol. Chem. In press. (PubMed)

Neidt, E.M., Skau, c.T., and D.R. Kovar. 2008. The cytokinesis formins from the nematode worm and fission yeast differentially mediate actin filament assembly. J. Biol. Chem. 283, 23872-83. (PubMed)

Berro, J., Michelot, A., Blanchoin, L., Kovar, D.R., and J.L. Martiel. 2007. Attachment conditions control actin filament buckling and production of forces. Biophys. J. 92, 2546-58. (PubMed)

Kovar, D.R. 2007. Intracellular motility: myosin and tropomyosin in actin cable flow. Curr. Biol. 17, R244-7. (PubMed)

Kovar, D.R. 2006. Molecular details of formin-mediated actin assembly. Curr. Opin. Cell Biol. 18, 11-17. (PubMed)

Kovar, D.R. 2006. Arp2/3 ATP hydrolysis: to branch or to debranch? Nat. Cell. Biol. 8, 783-5. (PubMed)

Kovar, D.R. 2006. Cell polarity: formin on the move. Curr. Biol. 16, R535-8. (PubMed)

David Kovar Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University

Kovar, D.R., Harris, E.S., Mahaffy, R., Higgs, H.N., and T.D. Pollard. 2006. Control of the assembly of ATP- and ADP-actin by formins and profilin. Cell. 124, 423-435. (PubMed)

Vavylonis, D., Kovar, D.R., O’shaughnessy, B., and T.D. Pollard. 2006. Model of formin-associated actin filament elongation. Mol. Cell. 21, 455-466. (PubMed)

Wu, J.Q., Sirotkin, V., Kovar, D.R., Lord, M., Beltzner, C.C., Kuhn, J.R. and T.D. Pollard. 2006. Assembly of the cytokinetic contractile ring from a broad band of nodes in fission yeast. J. Cell Biol. (PubMed)

Moseley, J.B., Okada, K., Balcer, H.I., Kovar, D.R., Pollard, T.D. and B.L. Goode. 2006. Twinfilin is an actin-filament-severing protein and promotes rapid turnover of actin structures in vivo. J. Cell Sci. 119, 455-66. (PubMed)

Kovar, D.R., Wu, J.-Q., and T.D. Pollard. 2005. Profilin-mediated competition between capping protein and formin Cdc12p during cytokinesis in fission yeast. Mol. Biol. Cell. 16, 2313-2324. (PubMed)

Kovar, D.R. and T.D. Pollard. Insertional assembly of actin in association with formins produces piconewton forces. 2004. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 41, 14725-14730. (PubMed)

Wu, J.-Q., Kuhn, J.R., Kovar, D.R., and T.D. Pollard. 2003. Spatial and temporal pathway for assembly and constriction of the contractile ring in fission yeast cytokinesis. Devel. Cell. 5, 723-734. (PubMed)

Kovar, D.R., Kuhn, J.R., Tichy, A.L., and T.D. Pollard. 2003. The fission yeast cytokinesis formin Cdc12p is a barbed end actin filament capping protein gated by profilin. J. Cell Biol. 161, 875-887. (PubMed)

Kovar, D.R. and T.D. Pollard. 2004. Progressing actin: Formin as a processive elongation machine. Nat. Cell Biol. 6, 1158-9. (PubMed)

David Kovar Graduate School at Purdue University

Klein, M.G., Shi, W., Ramagopal, U., Tseng, Y., Kovar, D.R., Staiger, C.J., and S.C. Almo. 2004. Structure of the actin crosslinking core of fimbrin. Structure. 12, 999-1013. (PubMed)

Preuss M.L., Kovar, D.R., Lee, Y.R., Staiger, C.J., Delmer, D.P. and B. Liu. 2004. A plant-specific kinesin binds to actin microfilaments and interacts with cortical microtubules in cotton fibers. Plant Phys. 136, 3945-55. (PubMed)

Huang, S., Blanchoin, L., Kovar, D.R., and C.J. Staiger. 2003. Arabidopsis capping protein (AtCP) is a heterodimer that regulates assembly at the barbed ends of actin filaments. J. Biol. Chem. 278, 44832-42. (PubMed)

Snowman, B.N., Kovar, D.R., Shevchenko, G., Franklin-Tong, V.E. and C.J. Staiger. 2002. Signal-mediated depolymerization of actin in pollen during the self-incompatibility response. Plant Cell 14, 2613-2626. (PubMed)

Kovar, D.R., Yang, P., Sale, W.S., Drøbak, B.K., and C.J. Staiger. 2001. Chlamydomonas reinhardtii expresses a profilin with unusual biochemical properties. J. Cell Sci. 114, 4293-4305. (PubMed)

Kovar, D.R., Drøbak, B.K., Collings, D.A., and C.J. Staiger. 2001. The characterization of ligand-specific maize profilin mutants. Biochem. J. 358, 49-57. (PubMed)

Kovar, D.R.¹, Gibbon, B.C.¹, McCurdy, D.W., and C.J. Staiger. 2001. Fluorescently-labeled fimbrin decorates a dynamic actin filament network in live plant cells. Planta 213, 390-395. ¹[contributed equally to this work] (PubMed)

Kovar, D.R., Staiger, C.J., Weaver, E.A., and D.W. McCurdy. 2000. AtFim1 is an actin filament crosslinking protein from Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant J. 24, 625-36. (PubMed)

Kovar, D.R., Drøbak, B.K., and C.J. Staiger. 2000. Maize profilin isoforms are functionally distinct. Plant Cell 12, 583-598. (PubMed)

Hu, S., Brady, S.R., Kovar, D.R., Staiger, C.J., Clark, G.B., Roux, S.J., and G.K. Muday. 2000. Identification of plant actin-binding proteins by F-actin affinity chromatography. Plant J. 24, 172-37. (PubMed)

Schobert, C., Gottschalk, M., Kovar, D.R., Staiger, C.J., Yoo, B.C., and W.J. Lucas. 2000. Characterization of Ricinus communis phloem profilin, RcPRO1. Plant Mol. Biol. 42, 719-30. (PubMed)

Gibbon, B.C., Kovar, D.R., and C.J. Staiger. 1999. Latrunculin B has different effects on maize pollen germination and tube growth. Plant Cell 11, 2349-2363. (PubMed)

Gibbon, B.C., Zonia, L.E., Kovar, D.R., Hussey, P.J., and C.J. Staiger. 1998. Pollen profilin function depends on the interaction with proline-rich motifs. Plant Cell 10, 981-994. (PubMed)

Kovar, D.R. and C.J. Staiger. 2000. Actin depolymerizing factor. In Actin: A Dynamic Framework for Multiple Plant Cell Functions. C.J. Staiger, F. Baluska, D. Volkmann, and P. Barlow (eds). Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, pp. 67-85.