Cofilin-2 controls actin filament length in muscle sarcomeres.

ADF/cofilins drive cytoskeletal dynamics by promoting the disassembly of "aged" ADP-actin filaments. Mammals express several ADF/cofilin isoforms, but their specific biochemical activities and cellular functions have not been studied in detail. Here, we demonstrate that the muscle-specific isoform cofilin-2 promotes actin filament disassembly in sarcomeres to control the precise length of thin filaments in the contractile apparatus. In contrast to other isoforms, cofilin-2 efficiently binds and disassembles both ADP- and ATP/ADP-Pi-actin filaments. We mapped surface-exposed cofilin-2-specific residues required for ATP-actin binding and propose that these residues function as an "actin nucleotide-state sensor" among ADF/cofilins. The results suggest that cofilin-2 evolved specific biochemical and cellular properties that allow it to control actin dynamics in sarcomeres, where filament pointed ends may contain a mixture of ADP- and ATP/ADP-Pi-actin subunits. Our findings also offer a rationale for why cofilin-2 mutations in humans lead to myopathies.