PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Novel mechanism affecting cell migration discovered

Novel mechanism affecting cell migration discovered
2014-10-15
(Press-News.org) VIDEO: Fruit fly border cells form clusters of six to eight cells, which display directional migration during oogenesis. Migration of border cells in egg chambers can be examined in detail by...
Click here for more information.

Cell migration is important for development and physiology of multicellular organisms. During embryonic development individual cells and cell clusters can move over relatively long distances, and cell migration is also essential for wound healing and many immunological processes in adult animals. On the other hand, uncontrolled migration of malignant cells results in cancer invasion of metastasis.

Cell migration has mainly been studied in cell culture environment. However, in animal tissues cells predominantly migrate in a three-dimensional environment, where they have to push through adjacent cell-layers and extracellular matrix. Migrating cells are known to form dynamic protrusions at their leading edge, but the function of these actin-rich protrusions has remained elusive.

By using fruit fly as a model system, Minna Poukkula working at the Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki, has now elucidated how actin-rich protrusions contribute to cell migration in animal tissues. She revealed that GMF, a protein that promotes the disassembly of branched actin filament networks, controls the size and lifetime of protrusions in border cell clusters migrating in fruit fly egg chambers. Importantly, diminished protrusion dynamics in GMF-deficient flies correlated with problems in border cell cluster migration. "These findings demonstrate that efficient actin filament disassembly by GMF is essential for rapid dynamics of cell protrusions, and that this dynamics are important for cell migration in a three-dimensional tissue environment", says Minna Poukkula from the research group of Pekka Lappalainen.

INFORMATION:


[Attachments] See images for this press release:
Novel mechanism affecting cell migration discovered Novel mechanism affecting cell migration discovered 2 Novel mechanism affecting cell migration discovered 3

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Effects of high-risk Parkinson's mutation are reversible

2014-10-15
Researchers from the University of Sheffield have found vital new evidence on how to target and reverse the effects caused by one of the most common genetic causes of Parkinson's. Mutations in a gene called LRRK2 carry a well-established risk for Parkinson's disease, however the basis for this link is unclear. The team, led by Parkinson's UK funded researchers Dr Kurt De Vos from the Department of Neuroscience and Dr Alex Whitworth from the Department of Biomedical Sciences, found that certain drugs could fully restore movement problems observed in fruit flies carrying ...

Scientists discover carbonate rocks are unrecognized methane sink

2014-10-15
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Since the first undersea methane seep was discovered 30 years ago, scientists have meticulously analyzed and measured how microbes in the seafloor sediments consume the greenhouse gas methane as part of understanding how the Earth works. The sediment-based microbes form an important methane "sink," preventing much of the chemical from reaching the atmosphere and contributing to greenhouse gas accumulation. As a byproduct of this process, the microbes create a type of rock known as authigenic carbonate, which while interesting to scientists was ...

Australians not prepared for dying with dignity

2014-10-15
Just 14 per cent of the population has an Advance Directive, or "living will", detailing their end of life treatment and care preferences, according to an article led by QUT Australian Centre for Health Law Research director Professor Ben White. This research is from a joint University of Queensland, QUT and Victoria University study, supported by the Australian Research Council in partnership with seven public trustee organisations across Australia. An Advance Directive is a legal document in which a person specifies what treatment or end of life care they want, when ...

Partisan lenses: Beauty lies in your political affiliation

2014-10-15
ITHACA, N.Y. – Have you ever noticed you find your candidate for political office more attractive than the opponent? New research from Cornell University shows you're not the only one. "We showed pictures of familiar and unfamiliar political leaders to voters in two different samples and found that familiarity and partisanship each significantly influenced how candidates were perceived," said the study's lead researcher, said Kevin M. Kniffin, a postdoctoral research associate at Cornell's Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management. "For example, Democrats ...

Food labels can reduce livestock environmental impacts

2014-10-15
PULLMAN, Wash. – With global food demand expected to outpace the availability of water by the year 2050, consumers can make a big difference in reducing the water used in livestock production. "It's important to know that small changes on the consumer side can help, and in fact may be necessary, to achieve big results in a production system," said Robin White, lead researcher of a Washington State University study appearing in the journal Food Policy. WSU economist Mike Brady demonstrated that the willingness of consumers to pay a little more for meat products labeled ...

Ancient fossils confirmed among our strangest cousins

Ancient fossils confirmed among our strangest cousins
2014-10-15
More than 100 years since they were first discovered, some of the world's most bizarre fossils have been identified as distant relatives of humans, thanks to the work of University of Adelaide researchers. The fossils belong to 500-million-year-old blind water creatures, known to scientists as "vetulicolians" (pronounced: ve-TOO-lee-coal-ee-ans). Alien-like in appearance, these marine creatures were "filter-feeders" shaped like a figure-of-8. Their strange anatomy has meant that no-one has been able to place them accurately on the tree of life, until now. In a new ...

Gene variants implicated ADHD identify attention and language deficits general population

2014-10-15
Philadelphia, PA, October 15, 2014 – Are deficits in attention limited to those with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or is there a spectrum of attention function in the general population? The answer to this question has implications for psychiatric diagnoses and perhaps for society, broadly. A new study published in the current issue of Biological Psychiatry, by researchers at Cardiff University School of Medicine and the University of Bristol, suggests that there is a spectrum of attention, hyperactivity/impulsiveness and language function in society, ...

Construction secrets of a galactic metropolis

Construction secrets of a galactic metropolis
2014-10-15
Galaxy clusters are the largest objects in the Universe held together by gravity but their formation is not well understood. The Spiderweb Galaxy (formally known as MRC 1138-262 [1]) and its surroundings have been studied for twenty years, using ESO and other telescopes [2], and is thought to be one of the best examples of a protocluster in the process of assembly, more than ten billion years ago. But Helmut Dannerbauer (University of Vienna, Austria) and his team strongly suspected that the story was far from complete. They wanted to probe the dark side of star formation ...

Psychiatrist appointments hard to get, even for insured: Study

2014-10-15
Obtaining access to private outpatient psychiatric care in the Boston, Chicago and Houston metropolitan areas is difficult, even for those with private insurance or those willing to pay out of pocket, a new study by Harvard researchers shows. The researchers, who posed on the phone as patients seeking appointments with individual psychiatrists, encountered numerous obstacles, including unreturned calls, wrong numbers and providers who were no longer taking new patients. They met with success in only one-quarter of their attempts, even after two tries. These and related ...

Prostate cancer's penchant for copper may be a fatal flaw

2014-10-15
DURHAM, N.C. – Like discriminating thieves, prostate cancer tumors scavenge and hoard copper that is an essential element in the body. But such avarice may be a fatal weakness. Researchers at Duke Medicine have found a way to kill prostate cancer cells by delivering a trove of copper along with a drug that selectively destroys the diseased cells brimming with the mineral, leaving non-cancer cells healthy. The combination approach, which uses two drugs already commercially available for other uses, could soon be tested in clinical trials among patients with late-stage ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

UT San Antonio School of Public Health: The People’s School

‘Preventable deaths will continue’ without action to make NHS more accessible for autistic people, say experts

Scientists shoot lasers into brain cells to uncover how illusions work

Your ecosystem engineer was a dinosaur

New digital cognitive test for diagnosing Alzheimer's disease

Parents of children with health conditions less confident about a positive school year

New guideline standardizes consent for research participants in Canada

Research as reconciliation: Oil sands and health

AI risks overwriting history and the skills of historians have never been more important, leading academic outlines in new paper

The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology: Higher doses of semaglutide can safely enhance weight loss and improve health for adults living with obesity, two new clinical trials confirm

Trauma focused therapy shows promise for children struggling with PTSD

School meals could drive economic growth and food system transformation

Home training for cerebellar ataxias

Dry eyes affect over half the general population, yet only a fifth receive diagnosis and treatment

Researchers sound warning about women with type 2 diabetes taking oral HRT

Overweight and obesity don’t always increase the risk of an early death, Danish study finds

Cannabis use associated with a quadrupling of risk of developing type 2 diabetes, finds study of over 4 million adults

Gestational diabetes linked to cognitive decline in mothers and increased risk of developmental delays, ADHD and autism among children

Could we use eye drops instead of reading glasses as we age?

Patients who had cataracts removed or their eyesight corrected with a new type of lens have good vision over all distances without spectacles

AI can spot which patients need treatment to prevent vision loss in young adults

Half of people stop taking popular weight-loss drug within a year, national study finds

Links between diabetes and depression are similar across Europe, study of over-50s in 18 countries finds

Smoking increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, regardless of its characteristics

Scientists trace origins of now extinct plant population from volcanically active Nishinoshima

AI algorithm based on routine mammogram + age can predict women’s major cardiovascular disease risk

New hurdle seen to prostate screening: primary-care docs

MSU researchers explore how virtual sports aid mental health

Working together, cells extend their senses

Cheese fungi help unlock secrets of evolution

[Press-News.org] Novel mechanism affecting cell migration discovered