The cytoskeleton is the intracellular filament system that controls the morphology of a cell, allows it to move, and provides trafficking routes for intracellular transport. It comprises three major filament systems-actin, microtubules, and intermediate filaments-along with a host of adaptors, regulators, molecular motors, and additional structural proteins. This textbook presents a comprehensive and up-to-date view of the cytoskeleton, cataloguing its many different components and explaining how they are functionally integrated in different cellular processes. It starts by laying out the basic molecular hardware, before describing in detail how these components are assembled in cells and linked to neighboring cells and the extracellular matrix to maintain tissue architecture. It then surveys the roles of the cytoskeleton in processes such as intracellular transport, cell motility, signal transduction, and cell division. The book is thus essential reading for students learning about intracellular structure. It also represents a vital reference for all cell and developmental biologists working in this field.

A Top 25 CHOICE 2016 Title, and recipient of the CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title (OAT) Award. How much energy is released in ATP hydrolysis? How many mRNAs are in a cell? How genetically similar are two random people? What is faster, transcription or translation?Cell Biology by the Numbers explores these questions and dozens of others provid

Actin is one of the most abundant proteins and ubiquitously expressed in all eukaryotes. In recent years, the analysis of structure and function of such complexes has shed new light on actin's role in cellular and tissue morphogenesis, locomotion and various forms of intracellular motility, but also on its role in nuclear processes like chromatin architecture and transcription. Progress in understanding these different physiological phenomena, but also in unravelling the basis of actin-based pathophysiological processes has been made by combining video microscopy, molecular biology, genetics and biochemistry. Thus, the current research on actin, as ongoing in many international laboratories, is a "hot spot" in basic and translational research in life sciences. In this book on "The Actin Cytoskeleton", twelve internationally renowned authors present specific chapters that cover their recent work concerned with the various roles of actin mentioned above. This comprehensive volume is therefore an attractive handbook for teachers and students in many fields of medicine and pharmacology.

This volume addresses the structural and functional roles of the cytoskeleton and its dysfunctions which often lead to disease. It provides thorough discussion of microtubules, microfilaments, intermediate filaments, and cytoskeletal functions and dysfunctions in different organ systems. Comprehensive yet concise. The Cytoskeleton In Health And Disease presents cutting-edge discoveries balanced with background information and highlights the new aspects of the research and its impact on the design of new strategies or the identification of new targets for therapeutic intervention. There is a significant need for a book on this topic, as interest in the cytoskeleton continues to grow as causes and cures for cytoskeletal diseases are further explored in biomedical research. This book is essential reading for scientists, students, and teachers interested in expanding their knowledge related to the cytoskeleton. New researchers entering the field will find classic and well as contemporary information not easily found in the current literature or internet resources.

The presence/absence of gene families with central roles in endomembrane and cytoskeleton dynamics in a variety of eukaryotic taxa and an understanding of eukaryote phylogeny allow the cellular machineries present in the last common ancestor of eukaryotes to be accurately reconstructed. Such a reconstruction is fundamental in order to understand eukaryotic diversification, since this is the ancestral cell from which all diversity arose. This book discusses the evolutionary origin and diversification of eukaryotic endomembranes and cytoskeleton from a cell biological and comparative genomic perspective.