As the microenvironment of a cell changes, associated mechanical cues may lead to changes in biochemical signaling and inherently mechanical processes such as mitosis. Here we explore the effects of confined mechanical environments on cellular responses during mitosis. Previously, effects of mechanical confinement have been difficult to optically observe in three-dimensional and in vivo systems...

The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans develops through two major phases: the first phase, embryogenesis, consists of a rapid series of cleavage cell divisions leading to morphogenesis of a first stage larva. The second phase is postembryonic development, which consists of developmentally regulated cell cycles that occur during the four larval stages leading to the adult. Precursor cells set aside...

Asymmetric cell divisions depend on the precise placement of the spindle apparatus. In mammalian oocytes, spindles assemble close to the cell's center, but chromosome segregation takes place at the cell periphery where half of the chromosomes are expelled into small, nondeveloping polar bodies at anaphase. By dividing so asymmetrically, most of the cytoplasmic content within the oocyte is prese...

BACKGROUND Cell-cycle progression is tightly regulated during embryonic development. In the Drosophila early embryo, the levels of String/Cdc25 define the precise timing and sites of cell divisions. However, cell-cycle progression is arrested in the mesoderm of gastrulating embryos despite a positive transcriptional string/cdc25 activation provided by the mesoderm-specific action of Twist. Wher...

Formative, also called asymmetric, cell divisions produce daughter cells with different identities. Like other divisions, formative divisions rely first of all on the cell cycle machinery with centrally acting cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) and their cyclin partners to control progression through the cell cycle. However, it is still largely obscure how developmental cues are translated at the ...

In cell divisions, relative size of daughter cells should play fundamental roles in gametogenesis and embryogenesis. Differences in gamete size between the two mating types underlie sexual selection. Size of daughter cells is a key factor to regulate cell divisions during cleavage. In cleavage, the form of cell divisions (equal/unequal in size) determines the developmental fate of each blastome...

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The woody tissue of trees is composed of xylem cells that arise from divisions of stem cells within the cambial meristem. The rate of xylem cell formation is dependent upon the rate of cell division within the cambium and is controlled by both genetic and environmental factors. In the annual plant Arabidopsis, signaling between a peptide ligand CLE41 and a receptor kinase PXY controls cambial c...

Orientation of cell division is critical for plant morphogenesis. This is evident in the formation and function of meristems and for morphogenetic transitions. Mosses undergo such transitions: from two-dimensional tip-growing filaments (protonema) to the generation of three-dimensional leaf-like structures (gametophores). The Defective Kernel 1 (DEK1) protein plays a key role in the perception ...

We consider a setting in which a single divisible good (“cake”) needs to be divided between n players, each with a possibly different valuation function over pieces of the cake. For this setting, we address the problem of finding divisions that maximize the utilitarian social welfare, focusing on divisions where each player needs to get one contiguous piece of the cake. We provide a constant fa...