Living cells are highly organized, yet they are not assembled using rigid blueprints or by following a predetermined plan. Instead, order emerges on its own from countless interactions between ...

Myosin in muscles behaves in a unique way, which might explain why muscles have such strong contractile power. A cartoon showing the asymmetry in the weak binding between myosin and actin that biases ...

Chara corallina myosin XI (CcXI) drives the movement of actin filaments, which spontaneously form ring-like structures due to a slight curvature that leads to polar alignment. Living cells are highly ...

Our skin and mucous membranes are protected by epithelial cells. This barrier tissue performs its function thanks to specialized structures called junctions. They ensure cell cohesion and regulate ...

Our skin and mucous membranes are protected by epithelial cells. This 'barrier' tissue performs its function thanks to specialized structures called 'junctions'. They ensure cell cohesion and regulate ...

Using technologies like electron microscopy (EM) it is possible to capture molecular mechanisms in great detail, but not when these mechanisms are currently moving. The field of cryomicroscopy ...

Cells use the polymerization of actin alone to create some types of movement, but many other forms of movement require interplay between actin and an enzyme called ...

The actin and myosin complex (actomyosin) generates contraction force of a muscle utilizing the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) hydrolysis reaction. Many attempts have thus been made to explain the ...

Actomyosin is a protein complex composed of actin and myosin. It is found in muscle fibers where it plays a role in muscle contraction. Actin is one of the most abundant proteins in eukaryotes. It ...

A human heart might contract some three billion times over a lifetime, and each one of those contractions is driven by a protein called myosin. One of three classes of so-called motor proteins in our ...