A special protein controls microtubule tissue

When we study cell structure, we can infer its function according to its shape There is a dynamic skeleton in plant cells, which is responsible for guiding the growth, development, movement and division of cells With the passage of time, the change of the skeleton creates the shape and behavior of cells, and finally forms the structure and function of the whole organism The Carnegie Institute of Science in the United States has studied a special tissue protein called gcp-wd It has been found that gcp-wd controls the position and speed of nucleation and the shape of cell cortex array It plays an important role in the formation of plant cytoskeleton and cell structure, and may also be very important for the organization of animal cytoskeleton The paper was published in the recent journal Current Biology Microtubules are polymerized by tubulin to form cytoskeleton Tubulin and tubulin like proteins are extremely "conservative" in the evolution process, which are found in many bacteria, fungi, higher plants and animals, and play a key role in the growth and division of biological cells The role of microtubules in animal cell division has been well understood The process of cell mitosis can be divided into several stages, including replicating a set of DNA chromosomes and dividing into two independent cells A scaffold of microtubules pulls apart the duplicated chromosomes and guides them into two new daughter cells However, there is an important difference between "microtubule assisted cell division" in plants and animals In animal cells (as well as yeast cells), the microtubules that are responsible for separating chromosomes during division are generally organized around a central structure; in plant cells, the microtubule array does not have a centrosome How do microtubules locate and perform their functions without the help of centrosome? Little is known about this, which is the focus of the ehart group's research They found that a protein called gcp-wd plays an important role in the central microtubule tissue structure of mammals, and is also the key to the formation and location of single microtubule in plant cells Its role is not only in the process of division, but also in the organization and function of the whole skeleton of plant cells Therefore, gcp-wd is a key factor in determining the shape and function of plant cells, which affects the cell structure system Microtubules are abundant in nerve cells and are the center of cell tissue and information processing In recent years, with the development of quantum theory and computer, many physicists are more and more interested in the role of microtubules "We have done quantitative living cell research in plant cells, so that we can 'see' how microtubules are organized behind the molecular mechanism." David ehart of Carnegie Institution said that it is also meaningful for scientists studying microtubules of animal cells to observe the function and operation of gcp-wd.