Advance in understanding cellulose synthesis

... Previously Ehrhardt and team found that plant microtubules move by shortening at one end while lengthening at the other end. They do this one tubulin molecule at a time, in a process the researchers call treadmilling. They now think that the tethering discovered in this research allows the ...

Changing climate likely to make 'super weed' even more powerful

... a double-whammy. The mesoxalic acid triggers a similar "cellular death cascade" in victim plants as gallic acid does, Bais said, destroying the tubulin and actin, the structural protein in the roots, within minutes of exposure. The scientific team detected the biological concentrations of ...

MBL director and CEO and cell biology pioneer Gary Borisy elected to National Academy of Sciences

... one of the great pioneers of cell biology," said Tim Hunt, 2001 Nobel Laureate and principal scientist at Cancer Research UK. "The identification of tubulin was a landmark, a turning point in the field." In 2006 Dr. Borisy became the MBL's 13th Director and 3rd CEO. Previously he was Associate Vice ...

Biophysical Society announces winners of 2008 Minority Travel Awards

... Conditions of A Proteins: Alzheimers Disease Passive Immunotherapy. Eric Johnson, University of Texas San Antonio, Effects of Porphyrins on tubulin Polymerization. Ann Kimble-Hill, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Biophysical Mechanisms of Protein Recruitment To Raft ...

UD plant biologists uncover top wetland plant's hidden weapon

... that helps plant roots to maintain their cellular integrity and grow straight in the soil. Within 10 minutes of exposure to the toxin in the lab, the tubulin of a marsh plant under siege starts to disintegrate. Within 20 minutes, the structural material is completely gone. When the roots collapse from ...

Gut research yields new anti-cancer approach

... inhibitors reduced levels of alpha and beta tubulin by 60 to 70 percent. Also described in the ... underway. While PPARgamma inhibitors reduce tubulin levels, older anti-microtubule drug classes; ... remain flexible. Taxol, for example, "freezes" tubulin subunits, making the cell skeleton rigid and ...

The making and breaking of microtubules

... the forms taken by transitional structures of tubulin (the protein from which microtubules are formed) ... these peculiar structures show how the binding to tubulin of the nucleotide guanosine triphosphate, GTP, ... produced high-resolution structures of stabilized tubulin structures, but nobody knew the structure of the ...

DNA Recombination and Repair—A New Twist to RecA Function

... that use ATP to ferry intracellular cargo along fibers made of actin or tubulin proteins. The ATP-dependent assembly of actin or tubulin fibers itself can work as a motor: for instance, the march of white blood ...

Researchers now able to look deep into heart to view triggers of a heart's beat

... eggs of two parasitic wasps (Nasonia vitripennis and Muscidifurax uniraptor). Using fluorescently labeled antibodies that recognize and bind to gamma tubulin and other centrosomal proteins, they demonstrated the presence of these proteins in accessory nuclei and showed that the accessory nuclei appear to ...

Insects that produce males from unfertilized eggs reveal a surprising cellular feat

... eggs of two parasitic wasps (Nasonia vitripennis and Muscidifurax uniraptor). Using fluorescently labeled antibodies that recognize and bind to gamma tubulin and other centrosomal proteins, they demonstrated the presence of these proteins in accessory nuclei and showed that the accessory nuclei appear to ...

Sea coral's trick helps scientists tag proteins

... well the new tag labeled and tracked target proteins, the team fused Dendra to proteins that form the cytoskeleton of the cell, including actin and tubulin filaments and found the expected patterns of intracellular protein distribution. Dendra belongs to a small family of green-to-red PAFPs. The ...

Snapin: A protein with therapy potential for autism

... building block of the dendrite skeleton. Now Firestein's research group has turned its attention to the protein snapin. When snapin binds to cypin, tubulin is crowded out, so fewer dendrites assemble and more branching occurs. When researchers overexpressed snapin in hippocampal neurons in the lab, ...