Mechanism Behind Expansion of Nucleus After Cell Division Discovered
How cells divide and then expand to multiply is one of the most important processes in cell development. Bundled fibers of actin within a cell nucleus has now been found to play a crucial role in how they expand after division by a research team led by Prof. Dr. Robert Grosse, a Freiburg medical scientist.
The cell’s outer form is stabilized by fibers of the structural protein actin, and it carries substances into a cell. Until now, the mechanisms behind the expansion of the cell nucleus after the division was quite a mystery for scientists. The journal EMBO reports published the results.
In order to unpack, reorganize, process, and read the genetic information in chromatin, the cell nuclei have to grow after division. Bundled fibers of actin within the cell are generally responsible for exercising force, but the new research shows that they are also involved in the mechanism behind the expansion of the nucleus.
The researchers measured how cell nuclei expand immediately after division in living cells using a video microscope. A high-resolution, super-resolution microscope was also used by the researchers to observe skeletal structures and fibers of actin
in the cell nucleus.Grosse and his colleagues are planning to study the role of mechanical forces in reorganizing the cell nucleus for sorting the genetic information. If successful, the process might play a part in stem cells and changed or disrupted in tumor cells.
Robert Grosse is a member of the Cluster of Excellence CIBSS – Centre for Integrative Biological Signalling Studies and a professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Freiburg. A research team lead by Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology’s Dr. Ulrike Endesfelder collaborated with Grosse in this new research.
Editor’s Note; Mechanism Behind Expansion of Nucleus After Cell Division Discovered, Freiburg Scientists
