Cells Eat Themselves Into Shape
The process cells use to ‘swallow’ up nutrients, hormones and other signals from their environment – called endocytosis – can play a crucial role in shaping the cells themselves, scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have found. The study, published today in Nature Communications, could help explain how the cells on your skin become different from those that line your stomach or intestine.
“We’re the first to show that endocytosis really drives changes in cell shape by directly remodelling the cell membrane,” says Stefano De Renzis, who led the work.De Renzis and colleagues made the discovery by studying the fruit fly Drosophila, which starts life as a sac. The fly’s embryo is initially a single large cell, inside which nuclei divide and divide, until, at three hours old, the cell membrane moves in to surround each nucleus, so that in about an hour the embryo goes from one to 6000 cells. As this happens, cells change shape. The cell membrane starts off with lots of finger-like tendrils sticking out of the embryo, and in about 10 minutes it smoothes down to a flat surface, like a rubber glove transforming into a round balloon.
Read More @ Story Source: http://www.embl.de/aboutus/communication_outreach/media_relations/2013/130807_Heidelberg/
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