News tagged with microtubules

Flatworms' minimalist approach to cell division reveals molecular architecture of human centrosome

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco and the Stowers Institute for Medical Research have discovered that planarians, tiny flatworms fabled for their regenerative powers, completely lack ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jan 05, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Team applies new techniques and sees surprises in cell division

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 ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Sep 08, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Scientists find a brake that acts when cellular motors run too far

(PhysOrg.com) -- An international team of scientists has shown how microtubules are interconnected into large networks. Like the poles of a tent, microtubules give shape to cells. By sliding microtubules along ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Sep 05, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 6 | 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

How cells' sensing hairs are made

(PhysOrg.com) -- Body cells detect signals that control their behavior through tiny hairs on the cell surface called cilia. Serious diseases and disorders can result when these cilia do not work properly. New research from ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jun 08, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | 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 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Alzheimer's-related protein disrupts motors of cell transport

A protein associated with Alzheimer's disease clogs several motors of the cell transport machinery critical for normal cell division, leading to defective neurons that may contribute to the memory-robbing disease, University ...

Medicine & Health / Research

created May 02, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Taking aim at tumors: Novel way of studying cancer may inspire new treatments

Many of the newest weapons in the war on cancer come in the form of personalized therapies that can target specific changes in an individual's tumor. By disrupting molecular processes in tumor cells, these ...

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Apr 19, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Getting a tighter grip on cell division

(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 ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Nov 25, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Scientists watch cell-shape process for first time

Researchers at the Carnegie Institution for Science, with colleagues at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology, observed for the first time a fundamental process of cellular organization in living plant cells: the birth ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Oct 10, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Study identifies critical 'traffic engineer' of the nervous system

A new University of Georgia study published in the journal Nature has identified a critical enzyme that keeps traffic flowing in the right direction in the nervous system, and the finding could eventually lead t ...

Medicine & Health / Research

created Sep 08, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

How microtubules let go of their attachments during cell division

Whitehead Institute researchers have determined a key part of how cells regulate the chromosome/microtubule interface, which is central to proper chromosomal distribution during cell division.

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created May 13, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Skeleton key for cancer metastasis

Cancer cells need all three of their cytoskeletons—actin, microtubules, and intermediate filaments—to metastasize, according to a study published online on April 26 in the Journal of Cell Biology.

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Apr 26, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Where injured nerve cells heal their bones

(PhysOrg.com) -- Microtubules are small protein tubes that give cells their structure and enable both their growth and division. It was assumed up to now that microtubules are formed by the centrosome, a cell ...

Medicine & Health / Research

created Feb 23, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Life's smallest motor, cargo carrier of the cells, moves like a seesaw

(PhysOrg.com) -- Life's smallest motor, a protein that shuttles cargo within cells and helps cells divide, does so by rocking up and down like a seesaw, according to research conducted by scientists at the ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Feb 18, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (9) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Microtubule

Microtubules are a component of the cytoskeleton. These rope-like polymers of tubulin can grow as long as 25 micrometers and are highly dynamic. The outer diameter of microtubule is about 25 nm. Microtubules are important for maintaining cell structure, providing platforms for intracellular transport, forming the spindle during mitosis, as well as other cellular processes. There are many proteins that bind to the microtubule, including motor proteins such as kinesin and dynein, severing proteins like katanin, and other proteins important for regulating microtubule dynamics.

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