Scientists discover how a motor protein helps cells move
Scientists have used the latest advances in microscopy to characterize how a motor protein helps cells crawl, according to a study published in the Journal of Cell Biology.
Scientists have used the latest advances in microscopy to characterize how a motor protein helps cells crawl, according to a study published in the Journal of Cell Biology.
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 25, 2024
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Researchers have shed light on the molecular mechanisms underlying hibernation, publishing their findings today as a Reviewed Preprint in eLife.
Plants & Animals
Feb 20, 2024
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976
It's been estimated that over one lifetime, a heart will beat 2.5 to 3 billion times without stopping. Yet the mechanics of how the heart physically carries out this function flawlessly, without fail, minute after minute, ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Jan 18, 2024
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In a new study, University of Maryland researchers have demystified the process by which cells receive their shape—and it all starts with a protein called actin.
Cell & Microbiology
Nov 4, 2022
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88
New knowledge about the very smallest muscle components, myosin and actin, can contribute to more effective treatment methods for heart and muscle diseases. Together with a research group from Canada, researchers at Linnaeus ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Aug 10, 2022
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100
A model from physics can provide insight into differences between slow and fast muscles, according to new research.
Molecular & Computational biology
Apr 21, 2022
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82
Can't resist your pup's adoring expression when he begs for a treat? A new study reveals key anatomical features that could explain what makes dogs' faces so appealing. The findings also suggest that humans contributed to ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 5, 2022
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100
The human heart contracts about 70 times per minute, while that of a rat contracts over 300 times; what accounts for this difference? In a new study publishing 10th June in the open-access journal PLOS Biology, led by Michael ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Jun 10, 2021
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118
Research groups at the University of Helsinki uncovered how motor protein myosin, which is responsible for contraction of skeletal muscles, functions also in non-muscle cells to build contractile structures at the inner face ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 2, 2021
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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 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.
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