Recent experiments have revealed that some membrane proteins aggregate to form clusters. This type of process has been proven to be dynamic and to be actively maintained by external kinetics. Additionally, this dynamic recruiting is cholesterol- and actin-dependent, suggesting that raft organization and cytoskeleton rearrangement play a crucial role. In the present study, we propose a simple mo...

Observers show small but systematic deviations from equal weighting of all elements when asked to localize the center of an array of dots. Counter-intuitively, with small numbers of dots drawn from a Gaussian distribution, this bias results in subjects overweighting the influence of outlier dots - inconsistent with traditional statistical estimators of central tendency. Here we show that this a...

Asymmetric distribution of proteins and other molecules within cells leads to cell polarization. One of the most studied examples occurs in epithelial cells that polarize to form apical and basolateral surfaces (Nelson, 2003). Although we know much about directed protein trafficking after cells are polarized, less is known about the initial mechanisms that lead to polarization. Genetic and bioc...

In this issue of Neuron, Xie et al. (2013) identified protein phosphatase 4c (PP4c) as a new component in the regulation of spindle orientation during mammalian neurogenesis. Importantly, their findings uncovered a novel and critical temporal aspect of the regulation of spindle orientation during neurogenesis.

Landscape groundcover plants are a diverse group of trailing or spreading species that naturally form continuous soil coverage.Ground cover plants that were used in this study consisted of vegetative propagules of: Vinca minor L. ٬Variegatum’, Vinca minor L. ٬Green’, Oxalis brasiliensis G. Lodd, Trifolium repens L., Phyla nodiflora L. and Frankenia thymifolia Desf. The aim of this study was to ...

Coordinated cell polarization and mitotic spindle orientation are thought to be important for epithelial morphogenesis. Whether spindle orientation is indeed linked to epithelial morphogenesis and how it is controlled at the molecular level is still unknown. Here, we show that the NuMA- and Galpha-binding protein LGN is required for directing spindle orientation during cystogenesis of MDCK cell...

stand establishment in crusting soil is one of the main concerns in the production of crops with delicate seedlings such as cotton, onions and rape seed. crust breaking, maintaining soil moisture and adding chemical and organic amendments to soil are different methods to weaken soil strength and allow the shoots to emerge. these methods are not always successful because they depend on factors s...

Mitotic spindle orientation is used to generate cell fate diversity and drive proper tissue morphogenesis. A complex of NuMA and dynein/dynactin is required for robust spindle orientation in a number of cell types. Previous research proposed that cortical dynein/dynactin was sufficient to generate forces on astral microtubules (MTs) to orient the spindle, with NuMA acting as a passive tether. I...