News: New cell division mechanism discovered
- From: "Robert Karl Stonjek" <rstonjek@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:07:17 -0500 (EST)
New cell division mechanism discovered
A novel cell division mechanism has been discovered in a microorganism that
thrives in hot acid. The finding may also result in insights into key
processes in human cells, and in a better understanding of the main
evolutionary lineages of life on Earth. The study is published today in the
online version the American National Academy of Sciences, PNAS.
The research group at the Department of Molecular Evolution at Uppsala
University has identified a completely cell division machinery. The
discovery was made in Sulfolobus acidocaldarius, a microorganism belonging
to the third domain of life, the Archaea, which originally was isolated from
a hot spring in Yellowstone national park in Wyoming, USA. Because of the
extreme conditions, in which the cells grow optimally in acid at 80ºC, the
organism is of interest for a wide range of issues.
"They represent exciting model systems in theories for how life once may
have originated in hot environments on early Earth, as well as in the search
for life in extreme environments on other planets," Professor Rolf Bernander
explains. He is the scientist behind the study, together with colleagues
Ann-Christin Lindås, Erik Karlsson, Maria Lindgren and Thijs Ettema.
The researchers have identified three genes that are activated just prior to
cell division. The protein products from these genes form a sharp band in
the middle of the cell, between newly segregated chromosomes, and then
gradually constrict the cell such that two new daughter cells are formed.
"This is the first time in decades that a novel cell division mechanism has
been discovered, and the gene products display no similarity to previously
known division proteins," Rolf Bernander says.
Two of the three proteins are instead related to eukaryotic so-called ESCRT-
proteins, which play important roles in vesicle formation during
intracellular transport processes, and which also have been implicated in
virus budding, including HIV, from the cell surface. The results are, thus,
important not only for an increased understanding of the cell biology of
archaea and extremophiles, but also for key cellular processes in human and
other higher organisms, and for issues related to the origin and
evolutionary history of these processes.
Source: Uppsala University
http://www.physorg.com/news144408546.html
Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek
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