St. Jude Scientists Discover a New Mechanism Controlling Neuronal Migration

... imaging to establish that Myosin II and actin made up the machinery of neuronal migration. ... used fluorescent dyes to label Myosin II and actin proteins, as well as key cell structures. The ... micromovies that revealed how the Myosin II and actin proteins and cell structures behaved during ...

Australian team reveals world-first discovery in a 'floppy baby' syndrome

... condition by replacing missing skeletal muscle actin a protein integral in allowing muscles to contract with similar actin found in the heart. "Earlier in our search to ... children who, despite having no skeletal muscle actin in their skeletal muscle due to their genetic ...

From mother to daughters: A central mystery in cell division solved

... is assembled from two protein filament types, actin and myosin, that are also used in muscle. ... contraction, the myosin filaments move along the actin filaments and constrict the ring. Constriction ... the contractile ring is built from long, straight actin filaments, which serve as tracks on which myosin ...

Penn researchers discover 'modus operandi' of heart muscle protein

... actin. Whats more, Lmod directs the assembly of actin to form the pumping unit of the heart. The ... [Tmod] that was already known to bind actin filaments in muscle cells. We found that one part ... that made us suspect that it could assemble the actin filaments of the heart muscle. This is exactly ...

How red blood cells nuke their nuclei

... red blood cell nears maturity, a ring of actin filaments contracts and pinches off a segment of ... 2 and mDia2 are involved in building the ring of actin filaments. We were very interested in that Rac ... proteins are known for their role in creating actin fibers in many body cells, and a necessary ...

Insights into cell movement likely to aid immune study, cancer research

... of proteins associated with the formation of actin networks, which are essential to cell movement. ... yeast, the proteins Cooper's lab studied regulate actin networks' contributions to a process called ... surface by forming pits on their cell membrane. actin networks provide the push that forms these pits ...

Scripps research scientists find new genetic mutation that halts the development of lupus

... gives more impetus to study these genes for autoimmunity. Because the actin cytoskeleton is essential for many crucial cellular functions and involves ... in specific cell types, these new findings highlight the importance of actin regulation in lupus pathogenesis. They also suggest that alteration of an ...

Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation awards prestigious fellowships to 17 top young scientists

... is studying cell motility in the context of the developing nervous system. He aims to understand how external cues are coupled to changes in the actin cytoskeleton. As cell motility is essential for normal development as well as for cancer metastasis, new insights into the basic biology of motility ...

Researchers gain new insight on wonder of cell division

... where a cell divides into two identical daughter cells. The researchers have opened a new window on the assembly and activity of a ring of actin and myosin filaments that contract to pinch a cell at just the right time. They focused on key proteins whose roles drive signaling mechanisms that ...

Jacobs-Wagner named Howard Hughes Investigator

... of proteins at particular locations and times within the life cycle of cells. Scientists in the last few years, for instance, have discovered that actin and tubulin, two proteins crucial in determining the shape of eukaryotic cells are also at work in bacteria. Jacobs-Wagner found that some bacteria ...

Researchers find new way to block destructive rush of immune cells

... that cell skeleton contractile force is used to drive T cell migration, with MyH9 as the mechanical link. Captured images show fluorescently tagged actin (which partners with LFA-1 to grip the surface) gathering at the front end of the cell, and fluorescently tagged MyH9 gathering at the tail end in ...

The structural basis of familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is revealed

... that this point mutation severely disrupts actin-myosin interactions as compared to those in wildtype myosin. While myosin normally attaches to the actin filament at a fixed angle, the mutated myosin displayed a wide variety of angles at the attachment sites, thus demonstrating a structural basis for ...

Atherosclerosis and its Mechanics

... levels as the cells also produced intracellular actin fibers that were aligned perpendicular to the ... simultaneously, they noted an unhealthy response: actin fibers oriented randomly and JNK concentrations ... of stretch," said Chien. "At the same time, the actin cytoskeleton of endothelial cells is somehow ...

A New Focus For The Mechanism Of Nerve Growth

... advance depends on the coordinated assembly of actin filament networks. This study implicates the ... II, as a key part of the process of recycling the actin networks and ultimately sensing and directing ... microscopy, or FSM, that let them directly see actin filament assembly, disassembly and movement in ...

Gene Discovered by Researchers Tied to Pancreatic Cancer

... Palladin, which Otey named for 16th century architect Andrea Palladio, “is very involved in the architecture of cells, specifically via the actin cytoskeleton, a polymer protein complex that provides much of the basis for cell shape,” Otey said. In 1996 Dr. Teresa A. Brentnall, an ...

Adult stem cells are sensitive to responses from the environment

... the cell to differentiate. "The cytoskeleton uses motors that, like our muscles, are based on the mechanical tension created by molecules of actin and myosin," Engler said. "When we deprive these stem cells of myosin, the cells do not respond to their physical environment, only their chemical ...

Discovery of Agile Molecular Motors Could Aid in Treating Motor Neuron Diseases

... distances along another type of cellular track called actin. This flexibility could help myosin V navigate crowded regions of the cell where the actin filaments criss-cross and where other cellular components would otherwise pose an impediment to motion. Defects in myosin V function also result in ...