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 ...
Nov 05, 2010 |
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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
Apr 21, 2009 |
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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 ...
Oct 18, 2009 |
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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
Aug 25, 2010 |
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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 /
Dec 24, 2008 |
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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 ...
May 10, 2011 |
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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 ...
Jul 21, 2009 |
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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
Feb 02, 2010 |
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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
Mar 04, 2009 |
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New genetic cause of cardiac failure discovered
Over the course of a lifetime, the heart pumps some 250 million liters of blood through the body. In the order to do this, the muscle fibers of the heart have to be extremely durable. The research group headed by Dr. Wolfgang ...
Nov 25, 2009 |
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Cellular Workouts Strengthen Endothelial Cells' Grasp
(PhysOrg.com) -- University of Pennsylvania bioengineers have demonstrated that the cells that line blood vessels respond to mechanical forces -- the microscopic tugging and pulling on cellular structures ...
May 13, 2010 |
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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, ...
Sep 07, 2010 |
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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 – ...
Feb 14, 2012 |
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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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