Among the many marvels of life is the cell's ability to divide and thus enable organisms to grow and renew themselves. For this, the cell must duplicate its DNA—its genome—and segregate it equally ...

Researchers have revealed how bacteria precisely control the genes that trigger cell division. The study shows that the MraZ protein, which normally forms a donut-shaped structure, must bend and ...

Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have built a computer simulation that tracks the entire life cycle ...

Many cellular functions in the human body are controlled by biological droplets called Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation (LLPS) droplets. These droplets, made of soft biological materials, exist inside ...

If measured from beginning to end, the DNA in our cells is too long to fit into the cell’s nucleus, explaining why it must be constantly folded and packaged. When it is time for cell division, and the ...

A simulated cell in the early stages of division. Left half shows membrane (green cubes), and ribosomes (yellow/purple) interwoven through in the cell’s chromosome (red). Right side shows all the ...

Scientists have uncovered how brewer’s yeast developed its unusually tiny centromeres, the DNA regions that guide chromosome ...

Adele L. Marston is in the Centre for Cell Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3BF, UK. Centromeres vary widely in size and DNA sequence, ranging from ...

By simulating the life cycle of a minimal bacterial cell—from DNA replication to protein translation to metabolism and cell ...

Chemists induced a cell-like behavior in molecular assemblies called vesicles. They used a sacrificial chemical fuel to make the vesicles divide into smaller versions of themselves. While this process ...