Cell geometry
Collection published: 14 December 2012
Last updated: 27 February 2013
Consulting Editors: Gillian Griffiths, Marc Kirschner, Mark Marsh, Sean Munro, Julie Theriot
Beyond the structural elegance of DNA and the astonishing versatility of protein machines lies a landscape of substantially uncharted dynamic complexity in the architecture of single cells. The aim of this series is to explore the mysteries of cell geometry from questions of scaling and cytoskeletal remodelling that operate at all levels of cellular life, to symmetry breaking and the adhesive interactions that lie at the heart of metazoan development.
The unicellular ciliate Stentor, which is the emblem of the series, is the classical example of the complexity of which a single cell is capable, and the principles of whose organization are far from fully understood.
Many fundamental questions remain to be answered. How do cells know what size they are? What are the origins of the specialized systems of membrane-bounded compartments that define eukaryotes? What is the influence of cell shape on cell division? What can pathogens tell us about the mechanisms underlying specializations of cellular architecture? What is the essential role of the centrosome? How does the remodelling of cellular architecture lead to the coherent remodelling of tissues in the developing embryo? These and many others are questions to be explored.
We welcome research papers that address them.
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Open questions: What is there left for cell biologists to do?
Sean Munro BMC Biology 2013, 11:16 (27 February 2013)
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Editor’s summary
In a contribution to the 10th anniversary series on open questions in biology, Sean Munro asks provocatively what there is left for cell biologists to do, and with great elan and a touch of waspish humor produces five unanswered questions on issues from the special properties of non-dividing cells to the architecture of the brain. |
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No strings attached: new insights into epithelial morphogenesis
Lance A Davidson BMC Biology 2012, 10:105 (20 December 2012)
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Editor’s summary
What regulates epithelial cell bending during early development? Lance Davidson comments on a paper from Zhirong Bao and colleagues where cell ingression in worm gastrulation is driven by dynamic cytoskeletal changes and cortical flow, challenging previous “purse-string” constriction models. |
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What determines cell size?
Wallace F Marshall, Kevin D Young, Matthew Swaffer, Elizabeth Wood, Paul Nurse, Akatsuki Kimura, Joseph Frankel, John Wallingford, Virginia Walbot, Xian Qu, Adrienne HK Roeder BMC Biology 2012, 10:101 (14 December 2012)
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Editor’s summary
In a Forum article in the Cell geometry series, ten experts in ten different systems explain why it matters what size a cell is, and offer ten different answers on how it is controlled – probably all of them right. |
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Actomyosin-based Self-organization of cell internalization during C. elegans gastrulation
Christian Pohl, Michael Tiongson, Julia L Moore, Anthony Santella, Zhirong Bao BMC Biology 2012, 10:94 (30 November 2012)
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Editor’s summary
A time-lapse imaging study in C. elegans shows how self-organizing modules form rosettes to remodel the embryo through actomyosin-based patterning during gastrulation.
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Untangling the evolution of Rab G proteins: implications of a comprehensive genomic analysis
Tobias H Klöpper, Nickias Kienle, Dirk Fasshauer, Sean Munro BMC Biology 2012, 10:71 (8 August 2012)
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Editor’s summary
The functional complexity made possible by the proteins that direct traffic between the internal membranes of eukaryotic cells lies at the heart of metazoan evolution. Sean Munro and colleagues trace the Rab family of membrane traffic proteins to its evolutionary roots.
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The Rabs: A family at the root of metazoan evolution
Harald Stenmark BMC Biology 2012, 10:68 (8 August 2012)
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Editor’s summary
Harald Stenmark explains the interest in the phylogenetic analysis of Rab GTPases reported in a paper in BMC Biology, and sketches (literally) the diversity of membrane transport functions that correspond to the six functional groups proposed. |
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Origins of cellular geometry
Wallace F Marshall BMC Biology 2011, 9:57 (31 August 2011)
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Editor’s summary
Many cells, both protozoan and metazoan, have extremely elaborate architectures, and most have organelles that obey scaling laws. Wallace Marshall discusses what is known of these remarkably ill understood properties.
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