Bacteria and archaea use protein filament systems to organize cellular processes in time and space. Filaments can act as static scaffolds or as dynamic motors. In some cases, these filament systems ...

Deep in hydrothermal vents beneath the Arctic Ocean, scientists have discovered an organism that sheds fresh light on the evolutionary link between simple and complex cellular life. The microbe and ...

Eukaryotes—fungi, plants, us—are complex. Our large cells are characterized by their different compartments, many of which are neatly enclosed within a boundary of membrane. These compartments contain ...

How did life leap from simple microbial cells to the complex, structured cells that make up animals, plants, and fungi? A new study in The EMBO Journal by researchers at the Indian Institute of ...

The cytoskeleton of a cell helps provide shape, strength, and an organised structure to the cell. The cytoskeleton can be compared to a transport network facilitating various types of movement in the ...

A lot happened in the hundreds of millions years separating the first and last eukaryotic common ancestors, but when and how most features arose remains a mystery. Eukaryogenesis is broadly defined as ...