Latest Cytoskeleton Stories

A group led by Dr. Paul T. Martin of The Ohio State University College of Medicine has demonstrated that the glycosyltransferase Galgt2 can lessen symptoms in multiple models of muscular dystrophy. Their report can be found in the July 2009 issue of the American Journal of Pathology.Muscular dystrophy is a group of inherited muscular disorders that are characterized by progressive skeletal muscle weakness, defects in muscle proteins, and the death of muscle cells and tissue. Recent studies...

"“ Notch signaling helps determine the fate of a number of different cell types in a variety of organisms, including humans. In an article that appears in the current issue of Nature Cell Biology, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine report that a new finding about the Notch signaling pathway in sensory organ precursor cells in the fruit fly could explain the mystery behind an immunological disorder called Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome."This finding provides a model for how Wiskott...

Study shows stalled microtubules might be responsible for some cases of the neurological disorder Charcot-Marie-Tooth diseaseStalled microtubules might be responsible for some cases of the neurological disorder Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease, Tanabe and Takei report in the June 15, 2009 issue of the Journal of Cell Biology (www.jcb.org). A mutant protein makes the microtubules too stable to perform their jobs, the researchers find.The mutations behind CMT disease slow nerve impulses,...

Cellulose is a fibrous molecule that makes up plant cell walls, gives plants shape and form and is a target of renewable, plant-based biofuels research. But how it forms, and thus how it can be modified to design energy-rich crops, is not well understood. Now a study led by researchers at the Carnegie Institution's Department of Plant Biology has discovered that the underlying protein network that provides the scaffolding for cell-wall structure is also the traffic cop for delivering the...

New research shows that muscle atrophy is a much more ordered and deliberate process than previously thought.During atrophy, which can occur when the body is weak from a disease such as cancer or AIDS, the body cannibalizes itself and breaks down muscle proteins to liberate amino acids. According to a new study, scientists have learned that a specific enzyme selectively degrades the thick filaments in the muscle but leaves the thin filaments alone. This allows muscles to remain muscles and...

During desperate times, such as fasting, or muscle wasting that afflicts cancer or AIDS patients, the body cannibalizes itself, atrophying and breaking down skeletal muscle proteins to liberate amino acids. In a new study published online June 8 and in the June 15, 2009 print issue of the Journal of Cell Biology (www.jcb.org), Shenhav Cohen, Alfred Goldberg, and colleagues show that muscle atrophy is a more ordered process than was previously thought. These researchers find evidence that...

U.S. medical scientists say they've developed a new therapy for Duchenne musclar dystrophy, a fatal disease and the most common form of MD in children. Researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School, using a mouse model, said they were able to substitute for the missing protein dystrophin, which forms a key part of the framework that holds muscle tissue together. The scientists injected dystrophic mice with a protein called utrophin -- a close relative of dystrophin -- that was...

Researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School have discovered a new therapy that shows potential to treat people with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a fatal disease and the most common form of muscular dystrophy in children.In the mouse model, researchers were able to substitute for the missing protein "“ dystrophin, which forms a key part of the framework that holds muscle tissue together "“ that results in the disease, effectively repairing weakened muscle tissue.Researchers...

A protein vital for correct chloroplast division in plants is able to take on a similar role in bacterial cells, according to research published today in the open access journal BMC Microbiology. The Arabidopsis thaliana Min protein (AtMinD) localizes in E. coli cells' polar regions keeping cell division at its correct central location, yet unlike its E. coli homologue, AtMinD does not oscillate.Making certain that E. coli cells divide in the centre is down to Min proteins (MinC, D and E)....

Researchers move a step closer to using virus particles as drug 'delivery' agentsIn a study published in May 2009 issue of PLoS Pathogens, Manchester and her colleagues show that CPMV interacts with the mammalian protein vimentin "” an interaction that scientists can now explore with the idea of using the virus to deliver "cargo," such as drugs, to tumors or other diseased tissues."Vimentin was not at all a likely suspect," says Kris Koudelka, a postdoctoral fellow in...