Papers

Publications of the Rock Lab

1.
Shangguan, J. & Rock, R. S. Quantifying intracellular distributions of HaloTag-labeled proteins with SDS-PAGE and epifluorescence microscopy. Bio Protoc 15, e5391 (2025).
2.
Piffkó, A. et al. Radiation-induced amphiregulin drives tumour metastasis. Nature 643, 810–819 (2025).
3.
Kroll, K. L., Sosnick, T. R. & Rock, R. S. Design and use of AsLOV2-based optogenetic tools for actin imaging. Methods Mol Biol 2840, 89–100 (2025).
4.
Shangguan, J. & Rock, R. S. Hundreds of myosin 10s are pushed to the tips of filopodia and could cause traffic jams on actin. eLife 12, RP90603 (2024).
5.
Kroll, K. L., French, A. R., Sosnick, T. R. & Rock, R. S. LILAC: Enhanced actin imaging with an optogenetic lifeact. Nat Methods 20, 214–217 (2023).
6.
Bryan, D. S. et al. 4-Hydroxyacetophenone modulates the actomyosin cytoskeleton to reduce metastasis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 117, 22423–22429 (2020).
7.
Santos, A., Shauchuk, Y., Cichoń, U., Vavra, K. C. & Rock, R. S. How actin tracks affect myosin motors. Adv Exp Med Biol 1239, 183–197 (2020).
8.
Trejo, C. S., Rock, R. S., Stark, W. M., Boocock, M. R. & Rice, P. A. Snapshots of a molecular swivel in action. Nucleic Acids Res 46, 5286–5296 (2018).
9.
Zalisko, B. E., Chan, C., Denic, V., Rock, R. S. & Keenan, R. J. Tail-anchored protein insertion by a single Get1/2 heterodimer. Cell Rep 20, 2287–2293 (2017).
10.
French, A. R., Sosnick, T. R. & Rock, R. S. Investigations of human myosin VI targeting using optogenetically controlled cargo loading. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 114, E1607–E1616 (2017).
11.
Alcala, D. B. et al. Myosin light chain kinase steady-state kinetics: Comparison of smooth muscle myosin II and nonmuscle myosin IIB as substrates. Cell Biochem Funct 34, 469–474 (2016).
12.
Vavra, K. C., Xia, Y. & Rock, R. S. Competition between coiled-coil structures and the impact on myosin-10 bundle selection. Biophys J 110, 2517–27 (2016).
13.
Zimmermann, D., Santos, A., Kovar, D. R. & Rock, R. S. Actin age orchestrates myosin-5 and myosin-6 run lengths. Curr Biol 25, 2057–62 (2015).
14.
Surcel, A. et al. Pharmacological activation of myosin II paralogs to correct cell mechanics defects. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 112, 1428–33 (2015).
15.
Engelmann, B. W. et al. The development and application of a quantitative peptide microarray based approach to protein interaction domain specificity space. Mol Cell Proteomics 13, 3647–62 (2014).
16.
Rock, R. S. The encyclopedia of biological chemistry. in (eds. Lennarz, W. J. & Lane, M. D.) vol. 3 632–635 (Academic Press, Waltham, MA, 2013).
17.
Rock, R. S. Molecular motors: A finicky myosin V chooses its own path. Curr Biol 22, R606–8 (2012).
18.
Spudich, J. A., Rice, S. E., Rock, R. S., Purcell, T. J. & Warrick, H. M. Optical traps to study properties of molecular motors. Cold Spring Harb Protoc 2011, 1305–18 (2011).
19.
Spudich, J. A., Rice, S. E., Rock, R. S., Purcell, T. J. & Warrick, H. M. Attachment of anti-GFP antibodies to microspheres for optical trapping experiments. Cold Spring Harb Protoc 2011, 1370–1 (2011).
20.
Spudich, J. A., Rice, S. E., Rock, R. S., Purcell, T. J. & Warrick, H. M. The optical trapping dumbbell assay for nonprocessive motors or motors that turn around filaments. Cold Spring Harb Protoc 2011, 1372–4 (2011).
21.
Skau, C. T. et al. Actin filament bundling by fimbrin is important for endocytosis, cytokinesis, and polarization in fission yeast. J Biol Chem 286, 26964–77 (2011).
22.
Rock, R. S. Molecular machines. in (ed. Roux, B.) 99–114 (World Scientific Press, Singapore, 2011).
23.
Ricca, B. L. & Rock, R. S. The stepping pattern of myosin X is adapted for processive motility on bundled actin. Biophys J 99, 1818–26 (2010).
24.
Nagy, S. & Rock, R. S. A structured post-IQ domain governs selectivity of myosin X for fascin-actin bundles. J Biol Chem 285, 26608–17 (2010).
25.
Courson, D. S. & Rock, R. S. Actin cross-link assembly and disassembly mechanics for alpha-actinin and fascin. J Biol Chem 285, 26350–7 (2010).
26.
Norstrom, M. F., Smithback, P. A. & Rock, R. S. Unconventional processive mechanics of non-muscle myosin IIB. J Biol Chem 285, 26326–34 (2010).
27.
Rock, R. S. Intracellular transport: Force controls motor switching at filament junctions. Curr Biol 20, R525–7 (2010).
28.
Brawley, C. M., Uysal, S., Kossiakoff, A. A. & Rock, R. S. Characterization of engineered actin binding proteins that control filament assembly and structure. PLoS One 5, e13960 (2010).
29.
Huang, J., Nagy, S. S., Koide, A., Rock, R. S. & Koide, S. A peptide tag system for facile purification and single-molecule immobilization. Biochemistry 48, 11834–6 (2009).
30.
Rock, R. S. A new direction for titin pulling. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 106, 13149–50 (2009).
31.
Ren, Y. et al. Mechanosensing through cooperative interactions between myosin II and the actin crosslinker cortexillin I. Curr Biol 19, 1421–1428 (2009).
32.
Rizk, S. S. et al. An engineered substance P variant for receptor-mediated delivery of synthetic antibodies into tumor cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 106, 11011–11015 (2009).
33.
Brawley, C. M. & Rock, R. S. Unconventional myosin traffic in cells reveals a selective actin cytoskeleton. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 106, 9685–9690 (2009).
34.
Courson, D. S. & Rock, R. S. Fast benchtop fabrication of laminar flow chambers for advanced microscopy techniques. PLoS One 4, e6479 (2009).
35.
Rizvi, S. A., Courson, D. S., Keller, V. A., Rock, R. S. & Kozmin, S. A. The dual mode of action of bistramide A entails severing of filamentous actin and covalent protein modification. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 105, 4088–92 (2008).
36.
Nagy, S. et al. A myosin motor that selects bundled actin for motility. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 105, 9616–9620 (2008).
37.
Spudich, J. A., Rice, S. E., Rock, R. S., Purcell, T. J. & Warrick, H. M. Single molecule techniques: A laboratory manual. in (eds. Ha, T. & Selvin, P. R.) 279–296 (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, N. Y., 2007).
38.
Rock, R. S. et al. A flexible domain is essential for the large step size and processivity of myosin VI. Mol Cell 17, 603–9 (2005).
39.
Churchman, L. S., Okten, Z., Rock, R. S., Dawson, J. F. & Spudich, J. A. Single molecule high-resolution colocalization of Cy3 and Cy5 attached to macromolecules measures intramolecular distances through time. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 102, 1419–23 (2005).
40.
Okten, Z., Churchman, L. S., Rock, R. S. & Spudich, J. A. Myosin VI walks hand-over-hand along actin. Nat Struct Mol Biol 11, 884–7 (2004).
41.
Rock, R. S., Hansen, K. C., Larsen, R. W. & Chan, S. I. Rapid photochemical triggering of protein unfolding in a nondenaturing environment. Chemical Physics 307, 201–208 (2004).
42.
Rock, R. S., Purcell, T. J. & Spudich, J. A. The enzymes. in (eds. Hackney, D. D. & Tamanoi, F.) vol. 23 55–87 (Elsevier Academic Press, San Diego, CA, 2003).
43.
Robinson, D. N., Ocon, S. S., Rock, R. S. & Spudich, J. A. Dynacortin is a novel actin bundling protein that localizes to dynamic actin structures. J Biol Chem 277, 9088–95 (2002).
44.
Spudich, J. A. & Rock, R. S. A crossbridge too far. Nat Cell Biol 4, E8–10 (2002).
45.
Rock, R. S. et al. Myosin VI is a processive motor with a large step size. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 98, 13655–9 (2001).
46.
Murphy, C. T., Rock, R. S. & Spudich, J. A. A myosin II mutation uncouples ATPase activity from motility and shortens step size. Nat Cell Biol 3, 311–5 (2001).
47.
Rock, R. S., Rief, M., Mehta, A. D. & Spudich, J. A. In vitro assays of processive myosin motors. Methods 22, 373–81 (2000).
48.
Rief, M. et al. Myosin-V stepping kinetics: A molecular model for processivity. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 97, 9482–6 (2000).
49.
Hansen, K. C., Rock, R. S., Larsen, R. W. & Chan, S. I. A method for photoinitiating protein folding in a nondenaturing environment. J. Am. Chem. Soc 122, 11567–11568 (2000).
50.
Mehta, A. D. et al. Myosin-V is a processive actin-based motor. Nature 400, 590–3 (1999).
51.
Rock, R. S. & Chan, S. Preparation of a water-soluble cage based on 3,5-dimethoxybenzoin. J. Am. Chem. Soc 120, 10766–10767 (1998).
52.
Stowell, M. H., Rock, R. S., Rees, D. C. & Chan, S. I. Efficient synthesis of photolabile alkoxy benzoin protecting groups. Tetrahedron Letters 37, 307–310 (1996).
53.
Rock, R. S. & Chan, S. Synthesis and photolysis properties of a photolabile linker based on 3’-methoxybenzoin. Journal of Organic Chemistry 61, 1526–1529 (1996).