The Perfect Cytoskeletal Storm | NIH Director
, director of the National Institutes of Health, blogs about 麻花星空视频 Whitman Scientists and and their explorations of cellular dynamics using resources from the National Xenopus Resource at 麻花星空视频.
Ever thought about giving cell biology a whirl? If so, I suggest you sit down and take a look at this full-blown cytoskeletal 鈥渟torm,鈥 which provides a spectacular dynamic view of the choreography of life.
Before a cell divides, it undergoes a process called mitosis that copies its chromosomes and produces two identical nuclei. As part of this process, , which are structural proteins that help make up the cell鈥檚 cytoskeleton, reorganize the newly copied chromosomes into a dense, football-shaped spindle. The position of this mitotic spindle tells the cell where to divide, allowing each daughter cell to contain its own identical set of DNA.
To gain a more detailed view of microtubules in action, researchers designed an experimental system that utilizes an extract of cells from the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis).