News tagged with cytoskeleton

Mini cargo transporters on a rat run: New insight on molecular motor movement

Kinesins assume a vital function in our cells: The tiny cargo transporters move important substances along lengthy protein fibers and ensure an effective transportation infrastructure. Biophysicists of the ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Apr 26, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Cells on the move

Cells on the move reach forward with lamellipodia and filopodia, cytoplasmic sheets and rods supported by branched networks or tight bundles of actin filaments. Cells without functional lamellipodia are still ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Apr 09, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Rearranging the cell's skeleton: Small molecules at the cell's membrane enable cell movement

Cell biologists at Johns Hopkins have identified key steps in how certain molecules alter a cell's skeletal shape and drive the cell's movement.

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Feb 02, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Single-molecule imaging reveals how cells prepare to interact with the world

Researchers at Harvard Medical School have discovered that structural elements in the cell play a crucial role in organizing the motion of cell-surface receptors, proteins that enable cells to receive signals from other parts ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Aug 18, 2011 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Scientists discover new direction in Alzheimer's research

In what they are calling a new direction in the study of Alzheimer's disease, UC Santa Barbara scientists have made an important finding about what happens to brain cells that are destroyed in Alzheimer's ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Jun 06, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

How muscle develops: A dance of cellular skeletons

Revealing another part of the story of muscle development, Johns Hopkins researchers have shown how the cytoskeleton from one muscle cell builds finger-like projections that invade into another muscle cell's territory, eventually ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jun 04, 2011 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (6) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Researchers ID molecular link key for cell growth

(PhysOrg.com) -- When a cell is preparing to grow or replicate, it starts the way a monarch planning to expand his territory might: by identifying and marshaling the necessary resources, loading them onto ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jan 24, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Newly discovered kinase regulates cytoskeleton, and perhaps holds key to how cancer cells spread

Scientists at the University of California, San Diego have identified a previously unknown kinase that regulates cell proliferation, shape and migration, and may play a major role in the progression or metastasis of cancer ...

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created May 31, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Chemists influence stem-cell development with geometry (w/ Video)

University of Chicago scientists have successfully used geometrically patterned surfaces to influence the development of stem cells. The new approach is a departure from that of many stem-cell biologists, ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Mar 17, 2010 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

How nerve cells grow: Researchers decode a molecular process that controls the growth

Brain researcher Hiroshi Kawabe has discovered the workings of a process that had been completely overlooked until now, and that allows nerve cells in the brain to grow and form complex networks. The study ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Feb 19, 2010 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (10) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Fruit fly neuron can reprogram itself after injury

Studies with fruit flies have shown that the specialized nerve cells called neurons can rebuild themselves after injury.

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Dec 06, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Cross-country runabouts -- immune cells on the move

(PhysOrg.com) -- In order to effectively fight pathogens, even at remote areas of the human body, immune cells have to move quickly and in a flexible manner.

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Nov 17, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Chromosomes dance and pair up on the nuclear membrane (w/ Video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- Meiosis - the pairing and recombination of chromosomes, followed by segregation of half to each egg or sperm cell - is a major crossroads in all organisms reproducing sexually. Yet, how the ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Nov 13, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Researchers identify critical gene for brain development, mental retardation (w/ Video)

In laying down the neural circuitry of the developing brain, billions of neurons must first migrate to their correct destinations and then form complex synaptic connections with their new neighbors.

Medicine & Health / Genetics

created Sep 04, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Biomimetic-engineering design can replace spaghetti tangle of nanotubes in novel material

(PhysOrg.com) -- Nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) devices have the potential to revolutionize the world of sensors: motion, chemical, temperature, etc. But taking electromechanical devices from the micro ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Jun 01, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (5) | comments 0

Cytoskeleton

The cytoskeleton (also CSK) is a cellular "scaffolding" or "skeleton" contained within a cell's cytoplasm and is made out of protein. The cytoskeleton is present in all cells; it was once thought to be unique to eukaryotes, but recent research has identified the prokaryotic cytoskeleton. It has structures such as flagella, cilia and lamellipodia and plays important roles in both intracellular transport (the movement of vesicles and organelles, for example) and cellular division. In 1903 Nikolai K Koltsov proposed that the shape of cells was determined by a network of tubules which he termed the cytoskeleton. The concept of a protein mosaic that dynamically coordinated cytoplasmic biochemistry was proposed by Rudolph Peters in 1929 while the term (cytosquelette, in French) was first introduced by French embryologist Paul Wintrebert in 1931.

For more information about Cytoskeleton, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Related topics: cells