Functional Assays
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1. In vitro assay of wild-type and mutant myosin function.

Actin and myosin in motion 

Fluorescent actin filaments translocate on individual myosin molecules attached to surface.  At a high concentration of myosin attached to the surface the filaments translocate. From J. Spudich, Department of Biochemistry, Stanford.

Actin and myosin in motion 

At a low concentration of myosin the filament interacts with a single myosin head.  From J. Spudich, Department of Biochemistry, Stanford.

2. In vitro assays of wild-type and mutant signaling molecules.

Mutant receptors, G-protein subunits, and adenylyl cyclases or any molecule required for aggregation and differentiation can be selected after random mutagenesis and biochemically assayed for function.  For a review of random mutagenesis of signaling molecules see  Parent, C. and Devreotes, P.N.  1995.  Molecular dissection of G protein-mediated signal transduction using random mutagenesis in Dictyostelium.  Methods in Molecular Genetics (K.W. Adolph, ed.), Academic Press, Orlando, FL.