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Tag: "actin" at biology news

Cellular message movement captured on video

...ng protein called paxillin (orange) in tandem with actin filaments (green). Credit: UC San Diego Scientist...at red-labeled paxillin is linked to green-labeled actin filaments, the thinnest of three types of protein filaments that make up the cytoskeleton of cells o...

Anthrax paralyzes immune cells with lethal toxin, UF research shows

.... Immune cells rely on rod-shaped filaments called actin to propel them toward an infection. In a previous study, Southwick found that the toxin prevents actin assembly, leaving neutrophils stuck in the mud. "Actin is important because it's the motor that c...

Scientists identify molecular cause for one form of deafness

...ibrations and resulting in deafness. Filamentous actin (F-actin) is a rod-like protein that provides stru...'deafness' mutants with progressively more damaged actin binding sites, the structure changes from a well-ordered crystalline array of filaments to a nematic...

FSU researchers determine a critical factor in workings of proteins

...embranes by growth hormones; and the regulation of actin polymerization, which influences the physical structure of living cells. The association rate thus plays a critical role in the overall health of the organism." Mutations are one factor that can disrupt quick association between proteins and lead ...

Motor protein plays key role in connecting neurons

...ravels a portion of a neuron's backbone called the actin filament, a sort of two-way highway in the cell's highest traffic area, says Dr. Wen-Cheng Xiong, developmental neurobiologist at the Medical College of Georgia. Part of its cargo is DCC receptor which needs to move from the central nucleus where ...

A key antibody, IgG, links cells' capture and disposal of germs

... and lysosomes to dock and bind to each other with actin filaments, the first step in the unification of the two vesicles. Among the antibody's other known roles, Nohturfft's group has now shown that IgG serves to accelerate the creation of phagolysosomes. Under physiological conditions, the scientists ...

New light microscope sharpens scientists' focus

...ages of a number of cellular structures, including actin filaments, focal adhesion proteins, mitochondria, and the Golgi apparatus. "Performance-wise, it's just astounding. And simplicity-wise it's astounding," Betzig said. "It knocks the socks off of standard fluorescence microscopy from a resolution pers...

Discovery of agile molecular motors could aid in treating motor neuron diseases

...n 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 neurological defects. Most of these molecular motors are associated with specific diseases or develo...

Adult stem cells are touchy-feely, need environmental clues

... 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 environment." But, the physical microenvironment can change due to injury and also in disease, whic...

New insight into machinery of immune cells' 'tentacles'

...e for formation, or polymerization, of the protein actin into filaments following activation of the T cells. Such actin filament formation is crucial for the T cell to attach to APCs, called B cells, which collect and di...

Movement of chromosome in nucleus visualized

...e of directed, long-range movement that depends on actin and myosin, the major molecular motor complex in t...e found in the cytoplasm, where they interact with actin filaments to do physical work. Because these molecules can contract muscles or move things around, t...

A new focus for the mechanism of nerve growth

...uch advance depends on the coordinated assembly of actin filament networks. This study implicates the mol... II, as a key part of the process of recycling the actin networks and ultimately sensing and directing nerve growth. Proteins in the Myosin family function ...

Sea coral's trick helps scientists tag 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 first protein in this family, Kaede--which is Japanese for maple leaf--was discovered by Japane...

How nerve cells stay in shape

...immature synapses. A more detailed analysis of the actin cytoskeleton offered the first evidence for a poss...en2-deficient nerve cells have significantly fewer actin fibres than normal synapses. The mRNA for actin is normally transported into dendrites and locally t...

Protein translation in sperm

...tion leads to a marked decrease in sperm motility, actin polymerization, the acrosome reaction and in vitro fertilization rates. Thus, protein translation in sperm is essential for sperm functions that directly contribute to fertilization. Dr. Breitbart is confident that "The new findings would give us b...

Similar Stem Cells In Insect And Human Gut

...centrin-based mechanism that is unlike any complex actin or microtubule-based cellular engine, says France. "This leads us closer to understanding two things: how cells use centrin-based engines to generate enormous forces and how we can possibly reconstruct centrin-based materials and devices for our own ...

Are U.S. Flu Death Figures More PR Than Science?

...centrin-based mechanism that is unlike any complex actin or microtubule-based cellular engine, says France. "This leads us closer to understanding two things: how cells use centrin-based engines to generate enormous forces and how we can possibly reconstruct centrin-based materials and devices for our own ...

Nano springs eternal; Protozoan 'engine' posts nano records

...centrin-based mechanism that is unlike any complex actin or microtubule-based cellular engine, says France. "This leads us closer to understanding two things: how cells use centrin-based engines to generate enormous forces and how we can possibly reconstruct centrin-based materials and devices for our own ...

Telling axons where to go - and grow

...ein degradation pathway in the regulation of local actin dynamics in neurons. The authors are able to sho...mpal neurons. LIMK1 regulates the dynamics of the actin cytoskeleton primarily via phosphorylation of the actin depolymerization factors ADF/cofilin, with i...

Image of myosin-actin interaction revealed in cover story of Molecular Cell

... the 3D representation of myosin V "walking" along actin filament, a key protein involved in motility and m...yo microscopy to take 3D snapshots of myosin V and actin interacting, researchers were able to see myosin V moving along the actin substrate in a "natural st...

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