  The current status of gaseous transport studies of the singly-charged
lanthanide and actinide ions is reviewed in light of potential applications to
superheavy ions. The measurements and calculations for the mobility of
lanthanide ions in He and Ar agree well, and they are remarkably sensitive to
the electronic configuration of the ion, namely, whether the outer electronic
shells are 6s, 5d6s or 6s$^2$. The previous theoretical work is extended here
to ions of the actinide family with zero electron orbital momentum: Ac$^+$
(7s$^2$, $^1$S), Am$^+$ (5f$^7$7s $^9$S$^\circ$), Cm$^+$ (5f$^7$7s$^2$
$^8$S$^\circ$), No$^+$ (5f$^{14}$7s $^2$S) and Lr$^+$ (5f$^{14}$7s$^2$ $^1$S).
The calculations reveal large systematic differences in the mobilities of the
7s and 7s$^2$ groups of ions and other similarities with their lanthanide
analogs. The correlation of ion-neutral interaction potentials and mobility
variations with spatial parameters of the electron distributions in the bare
ions is explored through the ionic radii concept. While the qualitative trends
found for interaction potentials and mobilities render them appealing for
superheavy ion research, lack of experimental data and limitations of the
scalar relativistic ab initio approaches in use make further efforts necessary
to bring the transport measurements into the inventory of techniques operating
in ''one atom at a time'' mode.

Atomic Physics