Actin is a highly abundant protein that controls the shape and movement of all our cells. Actin achieves this by assembling into filaments, one actin molecule at a time. The proteins of the formin ...

A Northwestern Medicine study has shed light on one of the most intricate construction projects in biology: how cells build ...

An electron microscopy study revealed key details of actin filaments, which are essential structural elements of cells and muscles. Actin filaments -- protein structures critical to living movement ...

Actin filaments are protein fibers that make up the internal skeleton of the cell. As active elements of our cells, actin filaments support the cell's fusion, movement and are involved in many other ...

Actin filaments - protein structures critical to living movement from single cells to animals - have long been known to have polarity associated with their physical characteristics, with growing ...

Model showing the release of phosphate in different parts of the actin filament. Actin in the core of the filament has a closed door while the back door at the end of the filament is open. A mutation ...

Cells in the human body are made to move. They assemble during embryo development, migrate to repair tissue, hunt pathogens, and perform a host of other tasks requiring travel. As part of the ...

Metastases occur when cancer cells leave a primary tumor and spread throughout the body. For this, they have to break connections with neighboring cells and migrate to other tissues. Both processes ...

“We are answering fundamental questions of life that scientists have been trying to answer for several decades”, remarks Raunser. In eukaryotic cells, actin proteins are abundant and tend to join ...

Formins are made of two identical parts (red, orange) that encircle the actin (grey) filament in a ring-like conformation. “Our discovery allows us to interpret decades of biochemical studies on ...