Many cell functions rely on the ability of microtubules to self-organize as complex networks. In plants, cortical microtubules are essential to determine cell shape as they guide the deposition of cellulose microfibrils, and thus control mechanical anisotropy of the cell wall. Here we analyze how, in turn, cell shape may influence microtubule behavior. Building upon previous models that confine...

Coordinated changes of cell shape are often the result of the excitable, wave-like dynamics of the actin cytoskeleton. New work shows that, in migrating cells, protrusion waves arise from mechanochemical crosstalk between adhesion sites, membrane tension and the actin protrusive machinery.

Bacterial cells contain a variety of structural filamentous proteins necessary for the spatial regulation of cell shape, cell division, and chromosome segregation, analogous to the eukaryotic cytoskeletal proteins. The molecular mechanisms by which these proteins function are beginning to be revealed, and these proteins show numerous three-dimensional structural features and biochemical propert...

The shape of a plant cell has long been the cornerstone of diverse areas of plant research but it is only recently that molecular-genetic and cell-biological tools have been effectively combined for dissecting plant cell morphogenesis. Increased understanding of the polar growth characteristics of model cell types, the availability of many morphological mutants and significant advances in fluor...

We show an electrical method to break open living cells amongst a population of different cell types, where cell selection is based upon their shape. We implement the technique on an optoelectronic platform, where light, focused onto a semiconductor surface from a video projector creates a reconfigurable pattern of electrodes. One can choose the area of cells to be lysed in real-time, from sing...

An elastomeric stamp, containing defined features on the micrometer scale, was used to imprint gold surfaces with specific patterns of self-assembled monolayers of alkanethiols and, thereby, to create islands of defined shape and size that support extracellular matrix protein adsorption and cell attachment. Through this technique, it was possible to place cells in predetermined locations and ar...