Latest Mitosis Stories

Proteins called cohesins ensure that newly copied chromosomes bind together, separate correctly during cell division, and are repaired efficiently after DNA damage. Scientists at the Carnegie Institution have found for the first time that cohesins are needed in different concentrations for their different functions. This discovery helps to explain how certain developmental disorders, such as Cornelia de Lange and Roberts Syndrome arise without affecting cell division essential to development....

Multipotent stem cells have the capacity to develop into different types of cells by reprogramming their DNA to turn on different combinations of genes, a process called "differentiation." In a new study, researchers from the Carnegie Institution for Science have found that reprogramming is imperfect in the early stages of differentiation, with some genes turned on and off at random. As cell divisions continue, the stability of the differentiation process increases by a factor of...

EMBL scientists identify the genes involved in cell division in humansName a human gene, and you'll find a movie online showing you what happens to cells when it is switched off. This is the resource that researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, and their collaborators in the Mitocheck consortium are making freely available, as the result of a study in which they have identified the genes involved in mitosis "“ the most common form of cell...

If you can imagine identical twin sisters at rest, their breath drawing them subtly together and apart, who somehow latch onto ropes that pull them to opposite sides of the bed"”you can imagine what happens to a chromosome in the dividing cell.Understanding the forces that drive chromosome segregation "“ a crucial aspect of human development and some diseases, including cancer "“ is the goal of an international group of researchers who collaborate each summer at the MBL.In a paper...

Regulatory proteins common to all eukaryotic cells can have additional, unique functions in embryonic stem (ES) cells, according to a study in the February 22 issue of the Journal of Cell Biology. If cancer progenitor cells"”which function similarly to stem cells"”are shown to rely on these regulatory proteins in the same way, it may be possible to target them therapeutically without harming healthy neighboring cells.The new study, by Thomas Fazzio and Barbara Panning (University of...

Nuclear pore complexes are best known as the communication channels that regulate the passage of all molecules to and from a cell's nucleus. Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, however, have shown that some of the pores' constituent proteins, called nucleoporins, pull double duty as transcription factors regulating the activity of genes active during early development.This is the first time nucleoporins' gene regulatory function has been demonstrated in multicellular...

Chromosomes move faster than we first thought. Research published in BioMed Central's open access journal, Genome Biology, details new findings about the way chromosomes move around the nucleus when leaving the proliferative stage of the cell cycle and entering quiescence "“ and the unexpected speed at which they move.Researchers from Brunel University's Institute for Cancer Genetics and Pharmacogenomics have been trying to understand how human chromosomes occupy different territories at...

A ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme that regulates the cell cycle promotes chromosome missegregation and tumor formation, according to van Ree et al. in the January 11 issue of the Journal of Cell Biology (www.jcb.org).The mitotic E2 enzyme UbcH10 partners with the anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C) to ubiquitinate cell cycle regulators, targeting them for proteasomal destruction, and ensuring progression through mitosis. UbcH10 is overexpressed in a variety of human cancers, but whether...

Each cell inherits genes from its parent as well as epigenetic information "“ what amounts to an instruction manual that specifies which genes should be activated or "expressed," when and to what level. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) scientist Chris Vakoc, M.D., Ph.D., and his team have now discovered how some of these epigenetic instructions get stably transferred from one generation of cells to the next.The scientists report that newly formed cells inherit the knowledge of...

When it comes to the two basic types of cells, prokaryotes and eukaryotes, compartmentalization is everything. Prokaryotes are evolutionarily ancient cells that only have a membrane surrounding their outer boundary, while the more complex eukaryotes have an outer membrane and membrane bound compartments within the cell. Perhaps most notable is the double layered membrane that surrounds the nucleus, the cellular compartment which houses the cell's genetic material.The genetic material is very...