Every living thing moves—prey from predators, ants to crumbs, leaves toward sunlight. But at the most fundamental level, scientists are still struggling to grasp the physics behind how our own cells build, move, transport ...
Cell & Microbiology
May 30, 2019
0
1911
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 & Microbiology
Nov 5, 2010
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0
A visualization made from nearly 100,000 electron microscope images has revealed the ingenious way a protein involved in muscle activity shuts itself down to conserve energy.
Molecular & Computational biology
Dec 2, 2020
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61
Myosins are motor proteins that convert chemical energy into mechanical work, generating force and movement. Myosin II generates forces that are essential to drive cell movements and cell shape changes that generate tissue ...
Biotechnology
Oct 28, 2019
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106
Each time you flex your bicep, millions of molecular motors work together in a complex process inside your muscle. These motors—called myosin—are chemically-powered proteins. Combinations of them perform different muscular ...
Engineering
Sep 13, 2017
1
299
The 'stiff-legged' walk of a motor protein along a tightrope-like filament has been captured for the first time.
Bio & Medicine
Apr 24, 2015
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26
(PhysOrg.com) -- Molecular "motors" are at the root of most biological movement. They propel cell components, whole cells, and even our muscles on command. Barbara Imperiali and a team from the Massachusetts Institute of ...
Biochemistry
May 10, 2011
1
0
Cells rely on tiny molecular motors to deliver cargo, such as mRNA and organelles, within the cell. The critical nature of this transport system is evidenced by the fact that disruption of motors by genetic defects leads ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 21, 2009
4
0
The contents of plant cells undergo continuous mixing by a process known as cytoplasmic streaming. Yet although this process was discovered more than 200 years ago, its exact purpose has remained unclear. Motoki Tominaga ...
Biotechnology
Jan 24, 2014
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0
The mechanism responsible for generating part of the skeletal support for the membrane in animal cells is not yet clearly understood. Now, Jean-François Joanny from the Physico Chemistry Curie Unit at the Curie Institute ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jun 10, 2013
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