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biosights

Dec 24, 2012

At the end of cytokinesis, the microtubule-rich midbody connecting the daughter cells is either shed into the extracellular space or retained by one of the daughters. Chai et al. find that the midbodies released from C. elegans Q neuroblasts are cleared via a pathway that closely mimics the removal of apoptotic cell...


Nov 26, 2012

Fission yeast are thought to assemble their cytokinetic actomyosin rings from actin filaments nucleated at myosin-containing nodes around the cell equator. Using an improved actin-binding probe, Huang et al. find that actin cables are nucleated all over the cortex of mitotic fission yeast and are transported to the...


Oct 29, 2012

A stiff test for collectively migrating cells

The mechanical properties of the extracellular matrix are known to regulate the migration of single cells, but whether substrate stiffness also affects collective cell migration is unclear. Ng et al. reveal that epithelial sheets move faster on stiffer matrices due to...


Oct 1, 2012

The position of the mitotic spindle is controlled by the microtubule-based motor dynein and a ternary complex of the proteins NuMA, LGN, and Ga. Kotak et al. demonstrate that the ternary complex's primary function is to localize dynein to the cell cortex and that cortical dynein is sufficient to position the mitotic...


Sep 3, 2012

C. elegans embryos are protected by a trilaminar eggshell that is thought to make the embryos impermeable to small molecules. Olson et al. describe the hierarchical assembly of the different eggshell layers but reveal that the permeability barrier is a distinct structure that lies in between the shell and the embryo...