Villin Like Protein (VILL)

VILL belongs to the villin/gelsolin family. It contains 6 gelsolin-like repeats and a headpiece domain. It may play a role in actin-bundling.

Nurse cells from quail mutant egg chambers fail to assemble cytoplasmic actin filament bundles correctly. Unlike vertebrate villin, which is restricted to specialized absorptive epithelial cells, the villin-like protein encoded by quail is germline specific in adult flies. Antibodies directed against the quail protein show a striking colocalization with filamentous actin in the nurse cells and the oocyte. Villin-like product of quail is required for the formation of cytoplasmic actin filament bundles in nurse cells, possibly by regulating both the polymerization and organization of actin filaments as demonstrated for vertebrate villin in vitro.