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News tagged with myosin

Researchers reshape basic understanding of cell division

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 ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Nov 05, 2010 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (12) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Nano-motor with a light switch: Light-triggered myosin allows real-time study of cells

(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 ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created May 10, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Research may lead to new ways to transport and manipulate molecules

A group of Marshall University researchers and their colleagues in Japan are conducting research that may lead to new ways to move or position single molecules -- a necessary step if man someday hopes to build ...

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created Feb 02, 2010 | popularity 4 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Small mechanical forces have big impact on embryonic stem cells

Applying a small mechanical force to embryonic stem cells could be a new way of coaxing them into a specific direction of differentiation, researchers at the University of Illinois report. Applications for force-directed ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Oct 18, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (5) | comments 0

'Relaxation' a critical step in vertebrate brain development

(PhysOrg.com) -- Normal vertebrate brain ventricle formation relies upon the stretchiness or "relaxation" of the neuroepithelium, which is regulated by the motor protein myosin. This process was discovered ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Mar 12, 2010 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Let's stretch... Scientists study myomesin protein

The proteins actin, myosin and titin are big players in the business of muscle contraction. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Hamburg, Germany, have now examined another muscle protein – ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Feb 14, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

One step at a time: Motor molecules use random walks to make deliveries in living cells

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 ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jul 21, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 4

Study finds protein critical to breast cancer cell proliferation, migration

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, ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Sep 15, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Autopilot guides proteins in brain

Proteins go everywhere in the cell and do all sorts of work, but a fundamental question has eluded biologists: How do the proteins know where to go?

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Apr 21, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0

Study offers clues to beating hearing loss

Researchers at the University of Leeds have made a significant step forward in understanding the causes of some forms of deafness.

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Mar 04, 2009 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Biologists learn structure, mechanism of powerful 'molecular motor' in virus

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have discovered the atomic structure of a powerful "molecular motor" that packages DNA into the head segment of some viruses during their assembly, an essential step in their ability ...

Biology /

created Dec 24, 2008 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Researchers find solution to cell death problem vexing stem cell research

Human pluripotent stem (hPS) cells can generate any given cell type in the adult human body, which is why they are of interest to stem cell scientists working on finding therapies for spinal cord injuries, Parkinson's disease, ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Sep 07, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Scientists uncover new mechanism of memory formation

Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have discovered a mechanism that plays a critical role in the formation of long-term memory. The findings shed substantial new light on aspects of how memory ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Aug 25, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Chromosomes make a rapid retreat from nuclear territories

Chromosomes move faster than we first thought. Research published in BioMed Central's open access journal, Genome Biology, details new findings about the way chromosomes move around the nucleus when leaving the proliferative stage ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Jan 13, 2010 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Dividing cells 'feel' their way out of warp

Every moment, millions of a body's cells flawlessly divvy up their genes and pinch perfectly in half to form two identical progeny for the replenishment of tissues and organs -- even as they collide, get stuck, ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Sep 10, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Myosin

Myosins comprise a family of ATP-dependent motor proteins and are best known for their role in muscle contraction and their involvement in a wide range of other eukaryotic motility processes. They are responsible for actin-based motility. The term was originally used to describe a group of similar ATPases found in striated and smooth muscle cells. Following the discovery by Pollard and Korn of enzymes with myosin-like function in Acanthamoeba castellanii, a large number of divergent myosin genes have been discovered throughout eukaryotes. Thus, although myosin was originally thought to be restricted to muscle cells (hence, "myo"), there is no single "myosin" but rather a huge superfamily of genes whose protein products share the basic properties of actin binding, ATP hydrolysis (ATPase enzyme activity), and force transduction. Virtually all eukaryotic cells contain myosin isoforms. Some isoforms have specialized functions in certain cell types (such as muscle), while other isoforms are ubiquitous. The structure and function of myosin is strongly conserved across species, to the extent that rabbit muscle myosin II will bind to actin from an amoeba.

For more information about Myosin, read the full article at Wikipedia.
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