How Cells Stick to Things and Move Around
~or~
Lamellipodia: The Forbidden Dance
Overview
Like the ladies of the night and their gentleman callers in the brothels of Buenos Aires, cells love to dance lasciviously. We call this dance the Lamellipodia: the forbidden dance, which may be performed only in the presence of a motile stimulus such as PDGF. Cells engaged in making sweet lamellipodia wave their membranes around in sinuous gyrations. This requires the coordinated remodeling of the cytoskeleton and adhesion molecules, which are mediated in large part by small GTPases, signaling molecules that, much like ecstasy or other so-called "club drugs", can induce wild movements within a cell. It is essential to our understanding of all biology, post-modern theory, and life in general that we identify crucial components that make cells dance . . . the Forbidden Dance!
Lamellipodia: The Forbidden Dance
Overview
Like the ladies of the night and their gentleman callers in the brothels of Buenos Aires, cells love to dance lasciviously. We call this dance the Lamellipodia: the forbidden dance, which may be performed only in the presence of a motile stimulus such as PDGF. Cells engaged in making sweet lamellipodia wave their membranes around in sinuous gyrations. This requires the coordinated remodeling of the cytoskeleton and adhesion molecules, which are mediated in large part by small GTPases, signaling molecules that, much like ecstasy or other so-called "club drugs", can induce wild movements within a cell. It is essential to our understanding of all biology, post-modern theory, and life in general that we identify crucial components that make cells dance . . . the Forbidden Dance!
posted by Joolya at
1:36 PM
3 Comments:
This one's right up there with PZ's octopus sex fixation.
Yes, but what a lovely description...I will never be able to look at pili in quite the same way again.
what is PZ's octopus sex fixation? octopi are very smart and can change color, which would be a vast improvement over some of my exes.
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