Alla Kostyukova, PhD

Biographical Information

Alla Kostyukova received her M.Sc. in Biophysics from St. Petersburg State University, Russia, and Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the Institute of Protein Research, Russian Academy of Sciences & Moscow State University. She worked as a Research Associate in the Institute of Protein Research, Russia, and as a Senior Research Associate in RIKEN Harima Institute at SPring8, Japan, before moving to the USA. Before joining the Washington State University Voiland School faculty she worked for 4 years as an Assistant Professor and Director of the Circular Dichroism Facility in Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, NJ.

Research Interests

1. Regulation of actin dynamics in cytoskeleton of muscle and non-muscle cells. Playing a critical role in muscle contraction, cell movement, and cell morphology, actin filaments form vastly different structures in different cell types and different locations within the cell. Regulation of the dynamics at actin’s ends is of central importance in the assembly of these various structures. The major goal of our research is to determine the mechanisms of this fine-tuned regulation necessary to understand processes existent in living cells, such as myocytes and neurons.
2. Protein structure, protein-protein interactions and protein engineering. Important part of our research is studying structure of proteins and formation of protein complexes as well as engineering proteins with desired properties. These studies are parts in our ongoing projects as well as incollaborative projects.

Ongoing Research Projects

• NIH RO1 GM120137, 06/01/2017-05/31/2025
  Regulation of the actin filament pointed end dynamics in health and disease. Role: PI
• NIH 2R01 HL123078, 02/01/2021-01/31/2025 (PI Gregorio)
  Deciphering the role of Lmod2 in cardiac muscle and in dilated cardiomyopathy. Role: co-PI

List of Recent Publications

(full list of publications: National Library of Medicine )
(italic: graduate students, underlined: undergraduate students)

1. Schultz LE, Colpan M, Smith GE Jr, Mayfield RM, Larrinaga TM, Kostyukova AS, Gregorio CC. A nemaline myopathy-linked mutation inhibits the actin-regulatory functions of tropomodulin and leiomodin. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2023;120(47):e2315820120.
2. Kuruba B, Starks N, Josten MR, Naveh O, Wayman G, Mikhaylova M, Kostyukova AS. Effects of Tropomodulin 2 on Dendritic Spine Reorganization and Dynamics. Biomolecules. 2023;13(8):1237.
3. Tolkatchev D, Smith GE, Kostyukova AS. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance-Guided Structural Analysis of Moderate-Affinity Protein Complexes with Intrinsically Disordered Polypeptides. Methods Mol Biol. 2023;2652:405-437.
4. Smith GE, Tolkatchev D, Risi C, Little M, Gregorio CC, Galkin VE, Kostyukova AS. Ca2+ attenuates nucleation activity of leiomodin. Protein Sci. 2022;31(7):e4358. doi: 10.1002/pro.4358.
5. Kuruba B, Kaczmarek M, Kęsik-Brodacka M, Fojutowska M, Śliwinska M, Kostyukova AS, Moraczewska J. Structural Effects of Disease-Related Mutations in Actin-Binding Period 3 of Tropomyosin. Molecules. 2021; 26(22):6980.
6. Tolkatchev D, Gregorio CC, Kostyukova AS. The role of leiomodin in actin dynamics: a new road or a secret gate. FEBS J. 20221 289(20):6119-6131.
7. Tolkatchev D*, Kuruba B*, Smith GE Jr, Swain KD, Smith KA, Moroz N, Williams TJ, Kostyukova AS. Structural insights into the tropomodulin assembly at the pointed ends of actin filaments. Protein Sci. 2021, 30(2):423-437 *equal contribution.
8. Tolkatchev D*, Smith GE Jr*, Schultz LE, Colpan M, Helms GL, Cort JR, Gregorio CC, Kostyukova AS. Leiomodin creates a leaky cap at the pointed end of actin-thin filaments. PLoS Biol. 2020;18(9):e3000848. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000848. *equal contribution.
9. Tolkatchev D, Smith GE Jr*, Kostyukova AS. Role of intrinsic disorder in muscle sarcomeres. Prog Mol Biol Transl Sci. 2019;166:311-340.
10. Moraczewska J, Robaszkiewicz K, Śliwinska M, Czajkowska M, Ly T, Kostyukova, A.S., Wen H, Zheng W. Congenital myopathy-related mutations in tropomyosin disrupt regulatory function through altered actin affinity and tropomodulin binding. FEBS J. 2019 286(10):1877-1893.
11. Ly T, Pappas CT, Johnson D, Schlecht W, Colpan, M, Galkin VE, Gregorio CC, Dong WJ, Kostyukova, A.S. Effects of cardiomyopathy-linked mutations k15n and r21h in tropomyosin on thin filament regulation and pointed-end dynamics. Mol Biol Cell. 2019;30(2):268-281.
12. Hu H, Islam T, Kostyukova, A.S., Ha S, Gupta S. From Battery Enabled to Natural Harvesting: Enzymatic BioFuel Cell Assisted Integrated Analog Front-End in 130nm CMOS for Long-Term Monitoring. IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems – I: Regular Papers. 2018; 66(2):534-545.
13. Gray, K.T., Stefen H, Ly T, Keller CJ, Colpan, M, Wayman GA, Pate E, Fath T, Kostyukova A.S. Tropomodulin’s Actin-Binding Abilities Are Required to Modulate Dendrite Development. Front Mol Neurosci. 2018;11:357.
14. Tolkatchev D, Elnatan D, Nogara L, Ly T, Naber N, Haak K, Meech R, Cooke R, Kostyukova A.S. Piperine, an alkaloid inhibiting the super-relaxed state of myosin, binds to the myosin regulatory light chain. Arch Biochem Biophys. 2018; 659:75-84.
15. Arslan B, Colpan, M, Gray, K.T., Abu-Lail NI, Kostyukova A.S. Characterizing interaction forces between actin and proteins of the tropomodulin family reveals the presence of the N-terminal actin-binding site in leiomodin. Arch Biochem Biophys. 2018, 638:18-26.