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biosights

Dec 21, 2015

How catastrophes help oocytes avoid disaster

During meiosis, oocytes must attach homologous chromosomes to opposite spindle poles, but the cells take several hours to assemble a bipolar spindle. Gluszek et al. reveal that, in Drosophila oocytes, the microtubule catastrophe–promoting protein Sentin delays the formation...


Nov 23, 2015

Cells migrate on the crest of a wave

Cells move through complex 3D environments in vivo, but studying 3D modes of migration in vitro remains a major challenge. Guetta-Terrier et al. examine the movement of cells along suspended nanofibers that mimic 3D fibrillar matrices and find that their migration is guided by...


Oct 26, 2015

CLIP-170 tips its hand in viral transport

After entering a cell, many viruses move toward the nucleus by binding to the microtubule-based motor protein dynein. Jovasevic et al. reveal, however, that herpes simplex virus must first associate with the plus ends of microtubules in a process that requires the dynein...


Sep 28, 2015

Maintaining the link between spindle and furrow position

The cytokinetic cleavage furrow must be carefully aligned with the spindle midzone during asymmetric cell division. Pacquelet et al. discover a pathway that maintains the connection between spindle and furrow position in one-cell C. elegans embryos by inhibiting...


Aug 31, 2015

Pushing the envelope on spindle assembly

During mitosis, numerous proteins accumulate around the mitotic spindle to help it assemble and segregate sister chromatids correctly. Schweizer et al. reveal that a membranous spindle envelope facilitates the accumulation of these proteins by excluding large organelles from the...