http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. A protein called "clathrin," which is found in every human cell and plays a critical role in transporting materials within them, also plays a key role in cell division, according to new research at the University of California, San Francisco. http://phys.org/news266169130.html Biology Thu, 06 Sep 2012 16:52:17 EST news266169130 Conventional biology expects the process of mammalian cell division, mitosis, to occur by the equal partition of a mother cell into two daughter cells. Bioengineers at UCLA Engineering have developed a platform that mechanically confines cells, simulating the in vivo three-dimensional environments in which they divide. Upon confinement they have discovered that cancer cells can divide a large percentage of the time into three or more daughter cells instead. http://phys.org/news260723942.html Biology Thu, 05 Jul 2012 16:19:57 EST news260723942 Researchers from the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) have identified the mechanism by which protein Zds1 regulates a key function in mitosis, the process that occurs immediately before cell division. The result has been achieved in the online edition of the Journal of Cell Science and opens the door to developing targeted and direct therapies against cancer. http://phys.org/news256555210.html Biology Fri, 18 May 2012 10:20:19 EST news256555210 The mitotic spindle, an apparatus that segregates chromosomes during cell division, may be more complex than the standard textbook picture suggests, according to researchers at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). http://phys.org/news254660492.html Biology Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:01:52 EST news254660492 Researchers at the University of Liverpool have resolved the debate over the mechanisms involved in the shut-down process during cell division in the body. http://phys.org/news253442881.html Biology Thu, 12 Apr 2012 09:48:10 EST news253442881 Within all our cells lies two meters of DNA, highly ordered in a structure of less than 10 micro meters in diameter. Special proteins called histones act as small building bricks, organising our DNA in this structure. Preservation of the structure is necessary to maintain correct function of our genes, making histones detrimental for maintaining a healthy and functional body. The research group of Associate Professor Anja Groth from BRIC, University of Copenhagen, has just elucidated a function of the protein Codanin-1, shedding light on the rare anemic disease CDAI where development of the red blood cells is disturbed. The new results also contribute with important knowledge on how our DNA-structure is maintained and how our genes are regulated. http://phys.org/news250768025.html Biology Mon, 12 Mar 2012 10:47:12 EST news250768025 Prions, the much-maligned proteins most commonly known for causing "mad cow" disease, are commonly used in yeast to produce beneficial traits in the wild. Moreover, such traits can be passed on to subsequent generations and eventually become "hard-wired" into the genome, contributing to evolutionary change. http://phys.org/news248526448.html Biology Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:00:06 EST news248526448 The accumulation of damaged protein is a hallmark of aging that not even the humble baker's yeast can escape. Yet, aged yeast cells spawn off youthful daughter cells without any of the telltale protein clumps. Now, researchers at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research may have found an explanation for the observed asymmetrical distribution of damaged proteins between mothers and their youthful daughters. http://phys.org/news241273735.html Biology Wed, 23 Nov 2011 12:29:12 EST news241273735 Centromeres are specialised regions of the genome, which can be identified under the microscope as the primary constriction in X-shaped chromosomes. The cell skeleton, which distributes the chromosomes to the two daughter cells during cell division, attaches to the centromeres. In most organisms the position of the centromere is not determined by the DNA sequence. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg have succeeded in demonstrating that the position, function and inheritance of the centromere are determined by the histone CenH3, a DNA packaging protein. This discovery may help to further the development of artificial human chromosomes, which could be used for gene therapies in medicine. http://phys.org/news239548223.html Biology Thu, 03 Nov 2011 14:10:53 EST news239548223 An international team of researchers led by investigators in the U.S. and Germany has shed light on the inner workings of the endocycle, a common cell cycle that fuels growth in plants, animals and some human tissues and is responsible for generating up to half of the Earth's biomass. This discovery, led by a geneticist at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and reported Oct. 30 in Nature, leads to a new understanding of how cells grow and how rates of cell growth might be increased or decreased, which has important implications in both agriculture and medicine. http://phys.org/news239201109.html Biology Sun, 30 Oct 2011 14:00:09 EST news239201109 When a bacterial cell divides into two daughter cells and those two cells divide into four more daughters, then 8, then 16 and so on, the result, biologists have long assumed, is an eternally youthful population of bacteria. Bacteria, in other words, don't age -- at least not in the same way all other organisms do. http://phys.org/news238944656.html Biology Thu, 27 Oct 2011 14:31:10 EST news238944656 At the same time that a cell's DNA gets duplicated, a third of it gets super-compacted into repetitive clumps called heterochromatin. This dense packing serves to repress or "silence" the DNA sequences within -- which could wreck the genome if activated -- as well as regulate the activity of nearby genes. When the cell divides, the daughter cells not only inherit a copy of the mother cell's DNA, but also the exact pattern in which that DNA is clumped into heterochromatin. http://phys.org/news237981919.html Biology Sun, 16 Oct 2011 13:00:06 EST news237981919 In order for cells of different types to maintain their identities even after repeated rounds of cell division, each cell must "remember" which genes were active before division and pass along that memory to its daughter cells. Cells deal with this challenge by deploying a "bookmarking" process. In the same way a sticky note marks the last-read page in a book, certain molecules tag the active genes in a cell so that, after it divides, the same genes are reactivated right away in the new cells. http://phys.org/news237381750.html Biology Sun, 09 Oct 2011 13:00:10 EST news237381750 Purdue University scientists believe they have found an effective target for killing late-stage, metastatic prostate cancer cells. http://phys.org/news236322542.html Chemistry Tue, 27 Sep 2011 06:40:02 EST news236322542 Researchers have found that a protein linked to cell division and migration and tied to increased cell proliferation in ovarian tumors is also present at high levels in breast cancer specimens and cell lines. The protein, dubbed "UNC-45A," was also determined to be more active in breast cancer cells than in normal breast cells. http://phys.org/news235320908.html Biology Thu, 15 Sep 2011 15:55:52 EST news235320908 The way in which plants space out the pores through which they breathe depends on keeping a protein active during stem cell growth, according to John Innes Centre scientists. http://phys.org/news234709470.html Biology Thu, 08 Sep 2011 14:04:30 EST news234709470 Researchers at the California Institute of Technology have obtained the first high-resolution, three-dimensional images of a cell with a nucleus undergoing cell division. The observations, made using a powerful imaging technique in combination with a new method for slicing cell samples, indicate that one of the characteristic steps of mitosis is significantly different in some cells. http://phys.org/news234704667.html Biology Thu, 08 Sep 2011 12:44:39 EST news234704667 During the development of gametes, such as egg and sperm cells in humans, chromosomes are broken and rearranged at many positions. Using state of the art technology, the research group of Franz Klein, professor for genetics at the Max F. Perutz Laboratories of the University of Vienna, has analyzed this process at high resolution. The surprising observations regarding the mechanism of meiosis are now published in the scientific journal Cell. http://phys.org/news232106034.html Biology Tue, 09 Aug 2011 11:40:03 EST news232106034 Scientists from the Hebrew University have identified the molecular basis for DNA breakage, a hallmark of cancer cells. The findings of this research have just been published in the journal Molecular Cell. http://phys.org/news230294369.html Biology Tue, 19 Jul 2011 11:39:42 EST news230294369 The protein complex responsible for the distribution of chromosomes during cell division is assembled in the transition regions between heterochromatin and euchromatin. http://phys.org/news229085870.html Biology Tue, 05 Jul 2011 11:58:17 EST news229085870 (PhysOrg.com) -- When a cell divides, the genetic information in the chromosomes must be passed on error-free to the daughter cells. Researchers at the Friedrich Miescher Laboratory in Tübingen are studying this process using fission yeast as a model organism. In cooperation with researchers at the University of Tübingen, they succeeded in attributing additional tasks to the Aurora enzymes, which were already recognized as important cellular tools for the reliable transmission of genetic information. Because uncontrolled cell division is a feature of tumours, Aurora enzyme inhibitors are already being tested as new cancer treatments, and these new insights from basic research may prove to be of use for this clinical research. http://phys.org/news228654664.html Biology Thu, 30 Jun 2011 12:11:31 EST news228654664 (PhysOrg.com) -- Using a new technique in which models of primitive cells are constructed from the bottom up, scientists have demonstrated that the structure of a cell's membrane and cytoplasm may be as important to cell division as the specialized machinery -- such as enzymes, DNA or RNA -- which are found within living cells. Christine Keating, an associate professor of chemistry at Penn State University, and Meghan Andes-Koback, a graduate student in the Penn State Department of Chemistry, generated simple, non-living model "cells" with which they established that asymmetric division -- the process by which a cell splits to become two distinct daughter cells -- is possible even in the absence of complex cellular components, such as genes. The study, which will be published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, may provide important clues to how life originated from non-life and how modern cells came to exhibit complex behaviors. http://phys.org/news224953971.html Chemistry Wed, 18 May 2011 16:13:23 EST news224953971 For two independent daughter cells to emerge from a cell division, the membrane of the dividing cell must be severed. In the latest issue of Science, a team led by Daniel Gerlich, Professor at the Institute of Biochemistry at ETH Zurich, presents a model illustrating this last step in the division of human cells. http://phys.org/news220529365.html Biology Mon, 28 Mar 2011 11:11:31 EST news220529365 Centrioles are barrel-shaped connection hubs that, like key Meccano parts, hold together the microtubule connection rods that form the structural framework of the cells in our bodies. http://phys.org/news215798805.html Chemistry Tue, 01 Feb 2011 16:07:06 EST news215798805 To be able to divide, a cell must first of all create enough space for itself in the tissue. How cells do that was a mystery, until now. Researchers from the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering at ETH Zurich have now discovered that cells "inflate" themselves generating hydrostatic pressure during division. By doing this cells develop an enormous force, which they use to push other cells aside. http://phys.org/news214050730.html Biology Wed, 12 Jan 2011 10:32:33 EST news214050730 (PhysOrg.com) -- The dance of cell division is carefully choreographed and has little room for error. Paired genetic information is lined up in the middle of the cell in the form of chromosomes. The chromosomes must then be carefully pulled apart so that the resulting daughter cells each have an identical copy of the mother cell's DNA. http://phys.org/news209889136.html Biology Thu, 25 Nov 2010 06:32:30 EST news209889136 By tracking the flow of information in a cell preparing to split, Johns Hopkins scientists have identified a protein mechanism that coordinates and regulates the dynamics of shape change necessary for division of a single cell into two daughter cells. http://phys.org/news208193702.html Biology Fri, 05 Nov 2010 16:35:23 EST news208193702 (PhysOrg.com) -- Unless you are in a field of study related to cell biology, you most likely have never heard of Ndc80. Yet this protein complex is essential to mitosis, the process by which a living cell separates its chromosomes and distributes them equally between its two daughter cells. Now, through a combination of cryo-electron microscopy and three-dimensional image reconstruction, a team of researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California Berkeley have produced a subnanometer resolution model of human Ndc80 that reveals how this unsung hero carries out its essential tasks. http://phys.org/news206274004.html Biology Thu, 14 Oct 2010 11:20:22 EST news206274004 A team led by a scientist at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine has discovered a regulatory protein that influences where genetic material gets swapped between maternal and paternal chromosomes during the process of creating eggs and sperm. The findings, which shed light on the roots of chromosomal errors and gene diversity, appear in tomorrow's issue of Nature. http://phys.org/news206202164.html Biology Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:23:00 EST news206202164 (PhysOrg.com) -- Biologist Barbara Mellone uses tiny cameras to study what happens when a dividing cell makes a mistake. http://phys.org/news204225494.html Biology Mon, 20 Sep 2010 18:50:02 EST news204225494