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Perspectives
New End Take Off: Regulating Cell Polarity during the Fission
Sophie G. Martin and Fred Chang
volume 4 | issue 8
august 2005Pages: 1046-1049
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Cell polarisation is a major event of the cell cycle and underlies the function of most cells. Cell polarity is often achieved through the coordinated organisation of the microtubule and actin cytoskeletons. Dramatic changes in cell polarisation occur during the cell cycle and are subject to regulation by cell cycle controls. Cells of the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe grow by tip extension in a cell cycle-controlled manner. During G2 phase, these cells exhibit a transition in cell polarisation known as New End Take Off (NETO), in which monopolar cells initiate bipolar growth. Dynamic microtubules contribute to this process by depositing at cell ends the microtubule plus end proteins tea1p and tea4p, which are necessary for NETO. We discuss here how these proteins may recruit for3p, a formin responsible for actin nucleation, as well as two other actin binding proteins, bud6p and sla2p, to initiate cell polarisation at the new end of the cell. Thus, the study of NETO is revealing a mechanism by which the plus ends of microtubules regulate the spatial organisation of actin.
We now provide open access to journal articles published online for one year or more. This article may be downloaded at the following link:
Download PDF If the document does not open, please right-click on the link (control-click on a Macintosh) and select the option to save the file to disk.