Cell division is an essential process for all life on Earth, yet the exact mechanisms by which cells divide during early embryonic development have remained elusive—particularly for egg-laying species ...

Researchers have revealed a surprising new role for a key protein in cell division. The discovery, reported in two back-to-back papers, challenges long-standing models and textbook accounts in biology ...

Trying to hit a target size before dividing seems like the best strategy for maintaining a precise cell size, but bacteria don't do that. Now we know why. When a single bacterial cell divides into two ...

Before a cell commits fully to the process of dividing itself into two new cells, it may ensure the appropriateness of its commitment by staying for many hours -- sometimes more than a day -- in a ...

Ichthyosporeans Sphaeroforma arctica and Chromosphaera perkinsii undergoing mitosis, depicted as two halves of a cell, rendered in Haeckel-inspired tones and a naturalist style. Cell division is one ...

Researchers at the Max Delbrück Center and the University of Oxford have found that a cellular housekeeping function called autophagy—by which cell components are broken down and recycled—plays a ...

A simulated cell in the early stages of division. Left half shows cytoplasm (blue cubes), mRNA degradation machinery molecules (pink), and sugar transporters (brown). Right half adds the membrane ...