Like poles support a tent, microtubules—hollow cylindrical structures made of tubulin protein—support eukaryotic cells. But microtubules provide more than just mechanical strength; they help prepare ...

Microtubules help to regulate cell structure throughout our bodies. A group of researchers have used cryo-electron microscopy to shed light on how a certain protein keeps microtubules stable, and ...

Almost all cell types exhibit some form of polarity; cell polarity refers to the spatial differences in shape, structure and function within a cell, which enables the cell to carry out specialized ...

The tau protein is an important factor linked to the development of human neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease. Yet there is still much we do not know about tau and other similar ...

"Microtubules are critical components of cells, but all the images we see in textbooks describing the first moments of their creation are models or cartoons based on structures in yeast. Here we ...

The chromosomes, once they have duplicated genetic information, move to the center of the cell and the cell, in a very remarkable way, quickly sprouts from its two ends large tubes that hook the ...

Cell biologists say they have, for the first time, directly observed and recorded in animal cells a pathway called branching microtubule nucleation, a mechanism in cell division that had been imaged ...

Heart cells constantly adapt to physical stress, and understanding this process may help improve future approaches to heart ...

Microtubules, the dynamic filaments that form the cell's internal scaffolding, have long been viewed as mere passive structural supports. But a new study reveals they play a far more active signaling ...

A new study by researchers from Drexel University College of Medicine reverses the popular scientific dogma that the protein tau stabilizes microtubules within brain cells. The scientists’ new ...