Using microscopic video analysis, a research group from Kumamoto University, Japan has provided deeper insight into the mechanics of plant cell division. The video reveals that the shape of ...

Actin is a highly abundant protein that controls the shape and movement of all our cells. Actin achieves this by assembling into filaments, one actin molecule at a time. The proteins of the formin ...

An electron microscopy study revealed key details of actin filaments, which are essential structural elements of cells and muscles. Actin filaments -- protein structures critical to living movement ...

Every time a white blood cell engulfs a bacterium, a neuron extends a projection to connect with a neighboring cell, or when a cancer cell forcefully squeezes through tissue to spread, the cell must ...

Cells in the human body are made to move. They assemble during embryo development, migrate to repair tissue, hunt pathogens, and perform a host of other tasks requiring travel. As part of the ...

Some cells, such as immune cells, are highly mobile—they constantly remodel their shape, migrate toward a wound that needs to be closed or chase down bacteria in the bloodstream. This mobility is ...

Actin filaments - protein structures critical to living movement from single cells to animals - have long been known to have polarity associated with their physical characteristics, with growing ...

Researchers have visualized at the molecular level how formins bind to the ends of actin filaments. This allowed them to uncover how formins mediate the addition of new actin molecules to a growing ...

Right: Cells whose actin filaments were disrupted. Time zero indicates the beginning cell plate formation. The phragmoplast microtubules are yellow, and the cell plate is magenta. Using microscopic ...

Formins are made of two identical parts (red, orange) that encircle the actin (grey) filament in a ring-like conformation. “Our discovery allows us to interpret decades of biochemical studies on ...