The spindle of the colonial diatom Fragilaria contains two distinct sets of spindle microtubules (MTs): (a) MTs comprising the central spindle, which is composed of two half-spindles interdigitated to form a region of "overlap;" (b) MTs which radiate laterally from the poles. The central spindles from 28 cells are reconstructed by tracking each MT of the central spindle through consecutive seri...

Melanosomal membrane proteins are frequently recognized by the immune system of patients with melanoma and vitiligo. Melanosomal glycoproteins are transported to melanosomes by a dileucine-based melanosomal transport signal (MTS). To investigate whether this sorting signal could be involved in presentation of melanosome membrane proteins to the immune system, we devised a fusion construct conta...

This study aimed to explore the therapeutic effects of adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs)-based microtissues (MTs) on erectile dysfunction (ED) in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. Fifty-six 8-week-old Sprague-Dawley rats received intraperitoneal injection of STZ (60 mg kg-1 ), and 8 weeks later, the determined diabetic rats randomly received intracavernous (IC) injection of phosphate...

The relationship between alpha tubulin detyrosination and microtubule (MT) stability was examined directly in cultured fibroblasts by experimentally converting the predominantly tyrosinated MT array to a detyrosinated (Glu) array and then assaying MT stability. MTs in mouse Swiss 3T3 cells displayed an increase in Glu immunostaining fluorescence ~1 h after microinjecting antibodies to the tyros...

It has been proposed that microtubules (MTs) participate in skeletal muscle cell differentiation. However, it is still unclear how this happens. To examine whether MTs could participate directly in the organization of thick and thin filaments into sarcomeres, we observed the concomitant reorganization and dynamics of MTs with the behavior of sarcomeric actin and myosin by time-lapse confocal mi...

The microtubules (MTs) within neuronal processes are highly organized with regard to their polarity and yet are not attached to any detectable nucleating structure. Axonal MTs are uniformly oriented with their plus ends distal to the cell body, whereas dendritic MTs are of both orientations. Here, we sought to test the capacity of motor-driven MT transport to organize distinct MT patterns durin...

Modal Transition Systems (MTS) are an extension of Labelled Transition Systems (LTS) that distinguish between required, proscribed and unknown behaviour and come equipped with a notion of refinement that supports incremental modelling where unknown behaviour is iteratively elaborated into required or proscribed behaviour. The original formulation of MTS introduces two alternative semantics for ...

Epithelial cells cultured from the lung of the Northwest rough-skinned newt (Taricha granulosa granulosa) were subjected to brief (10-15 min) elevated temperature shocks of 33 degrees-36 degrees C during metaphase. Electron microscope studies on these cells reveal that the spindle microtubules (Mts) are differentially stable to heat treatment. The great majority of nonkinetochore Mts are destro...

We address the relative roles of astral and central spindle microtubules (MTs) in cytokinesis of Drosophila melanogaster primary spermatocytes. Time-lapse imaging studies reveal that the central spindle is comprised of two MT populations, "interior" central spindle MTs found within the spindle envelope and "peripheral" astral MTs that probe the cytoplasm and initiate cleavage furrows where they...

UNLABELLED Recent studies have suggested a possible relationship between temporal lobe epilepsy with mesial temporal sclerosis (MTS) and neurocysticercosis (NC). We performed a case-control study to evaluate the association of NC and MTS. METHOD We randomly selected patients with different epilepsy types, including: MTS, primary generalized epilepsy (PGE) and focal symptomatic epilepsy (FSE)....