The spindle orientation is a crucial piece of information to understand the development of embryo. The spindle forms during cell division and the cell divides along the spindle axis. Spindle orientation was measured in many different mutant embryos of Caenrohabditis elegans. However, the objectivity and the productivity of these measurements were low because these measurements were made manuall...

Ancestry analysis from genetic data plays a critical role in studies of human disease and evolution. Recent work has introduced explicit models for the geographic distribution of genetic variation and has shown that such explicit models yield superior accuracy in ancestry inference over nonmodel-based methods. Here we extend such work to introduce a method that models admixture between ancestor...

For cell morphogenesis, the cell must establish distinct spatial domains at specified locations at the cell surface. Here, we review the molecular mechanisms of cell polarity in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. These are simple rod-shaped cells that form cortical domains at cell tips for cell growth and at the cell middle for cytokinesis. In both cases, microtubule-based systems hel...

3D amoeboid cell migration is central to many developmental and disease-related processes such as cancer metastasis. Here, we identify a unique prototypic amoeboid cell migration mode in early zebrafish embryos, termed stable-bleb migration. Stable-bleb cells display an invariant polarized balloon-like shape with exceptional migration speed and persistence. Progenitor cells can be reversibly tr...

We demonstrate experimentally an optical process in which the spin angular momentum carried by a circularly polarized light beam is converted into orbital angular momentum, leading to the generation of helical modes with a wave-front helicity controlled by the input polarization. This phenomenon requires the interaction of light with matter that is both optically inhomogeneous and anisotropic. ...

In any mitotic cell, the orientation of the mitotic spindle determines the orientation of the cleavage plane and therefore the position of the two daughter cells. When combined with polarization of cellular components, spindle orientation is also a well-conserved means of generating daughter cells with asymmetric cell fates, such as progenitors and differentiated cell types. In the mammalian ne...

A major feature of epithelial cell polarity is regulated positioning of the mitotic spindle within the cell. Spindles in cells of symmetrically expanding tissues are predicted to align parallel to the tissue plane. Direct measurement of this alignment has been difficult in mammalian tissues. Here, we analyzed the position of spindles in intact mouse intestinal epithelium using microtubule immun...

Cell division orientation is crucial to control segregation of polarized fate determinants in the daughter cells to produce symmetric or asymmetric fate outcomes. Most studies in vertebrates have focused on the role of mitotic spindle orientation in proliferative asymmetric divisions and it remains unclear whether altering spindle orientation is required for the production of asymmetric fates i...

Cell fate determination in the progeny of mammary epithelial stem/progenitor cells remains poorly understood. Here, we have examined the role of the mitotic kinase Aurora A (AURKA) in regulating the balance between basal and luminal mammary lineages. We find that AURKA is highly expressed in basal stem cells and, to a lesser extent, in luminal progenitors. Wild-type AURKA expression promoted lu...

Control of cell polarity is crucial during tissue morphogenesis and renewal, and depends on spatial cues provided by the extracellular environment. Using micropatterned substrates to impose reproducible cell-cell interactions, we show that in the absence of other polarizing cues, cell-cell contacts are the main regulator of nucleus and centrosome positioning, and intracellular polarized organiz...