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Scientists from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) have created the first interactive map of proteins involved in cell division.
Image credit: Andrii Vodolazhskyi / Shutterstock
The tool allows researchers to determine which proteins work together to drive this vital process. The importance of this is paramount because the failure of mitosis leads to defects such as fertility problems and cancer.
In 2010, the same research team established which parts of the human genome are involved in cell division, but this is not the genome that is causing the process. these are the proteins that the genome encodes.
Hundreds of proteins work together to coordinate cell division, often working in groups, but until now researchers have focused primarily on unique proteins.
Project leader, Jan Ellenberg, explains that it is now possible to adopt a "systemic approach" and study the big picture by examining the dynamic networks formed by proteins in living human cells.
The Atlas of Mitotic Cells integrates this information into an interactive 4D computer model that researchers can use to select any combination of mitotic proteins and see how they cooperate during cell division.
In addition to mitosis, the technologies developed here can be used to study proteins that direct other cellular functions, such as cell death, cell migration, or metastasis of cancer cells.
By examining the dynamic networks that these proteins form, we can identify critical vulnerabilities, points where a single protein is responsible for linking two tasks without backup.
Jan Ellenberg, Project Manager
Overall, about 600 proteins cause mitosis in human cells. Having a set of data for the 600 of them would allow researchers to understand how information is transmitted and how decisions are made within a cell when it divides. This will require several years of research.
Co-author Stephanie Alexander says that at EMBL, researchers are continually adding data to the atlas by imagining more and more proteins using the same standardized method:
In the long term, a complete overview of all the proteins in the cell will allow us to see how different important processes of life, such as cell division and cell death, are related to each other. You can only understand this from the point of view of the network. "
Stephanie Alexander, co-author
Source:
This press article has been rewritten from an EMBL press release, originally published on EurekAlert.
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