Fesselin is a natively unfolded protein that is abundant in avian smooth muscle. Like many natively
unfolded proteins, fesselin has multiple binding partners including actin, myosin, calmodulin and
α-actinin. Fesselin accelerates actin polymerization and bundles actin. These and other observations
suggest that fesselin is a component of the cytoskeleton. We have now cloned fesselin and have
determined the cDNA derived amino acid sequence. We verified parts of the sequence by Edman
analysis and by mass spectroscopy. Our results confirmed fesselin is homologous to human
synaptopodin 2 and belongs to the synaptopodin family of proteins. Originally published Biochem Biophys Res Commun. Vol. 371, No. 3, July 200