Neurobiologist seeks transgenic line expressing a GFP- or tagRFP-tagged actin binding domain in the epidermis/hypodermis. Thanks.
Upon seeing your post, I remembered that Kinchen et al used a GFP-actin fusion to look at programmed cell death; checking, I found it was actually YFP and they expressed it under the control of lim-7, in the somatic gonad, which isn’t what you’re looking for.
Nonetheless: they describe a usable, functional YFP::F-Actin fusion protein that could be adapted for your needs, using act-5. And if you then go to the WormBase page for act-5, and look at the Reagents tab, you will find qxIs289 Phyp7::act-5::gfp, from Chai et al. So maybe you should take a look at that.
Michel Labouesse’s lab used the VAB-10 actin binding domain fused to GFP and mCherry to visualize actin dynamics in the hyp, published in this Development paper.
If mCherry is ok, then you can order this strain from the CGC; if not, you’ll have to ask Michel for the lines you want.
Best,
Steve V