Cytoskeleton, Cell Motility and Motors

General

• The Biology Project: Cell Biology: Cytoskeleton Tutorial - Tutorial on the cytoskeleton with illustrations. (University of Arizona) (Beginner's Level)
• Cell Biology Web Pages - Hypertext- and image-based overviews of cell and organelle structure and function. (Gwen V. Childs, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences) (Just above Beginner's Level)
  • Cilia and Flagella
  • Intermediate Filaments
  • Microtubules
• Cell Intelligence - A multimedia presentation of cell movement interpreted with respect to ideas about non-random organization in cell and organelle structure. (Guenter Albrecht-Buehler, Northwestern University)
• Cell Migration Gateway - "The Cell Migration Gateway is a comprehensive and regularly updated resource for anyone interested in cell migration." (Cell Migration Consortium and Nature Publishing Group)
  • Cell Migration Knowledgebase
  • Cell Migration Update
  • Migration 101: Primer on Cell Migration
• Cell Mobility and Cytoskeleton - A primer on cell locomotion and the cytoskeleton. (Mark Hill, University of New South Wales, Australia) (Beginner's Level)
• Cell Motion - "This page summarizes the parameters associated with motion and chemotaxis of cells," such as typical cell migration speeds and persistence times. (Leah Edelstein-Keshet, University of British Columbia, Canada)
• Cytoskeleton, Inc.'s Information Resource - Information and technical tips for researchers studying the cytoskeleton. (Cytoskeleton, Inc.)
• Cytoskeleton Research - Portal for information on research on the cytoskeleton.
• Drosophila Gene Families: Cytoskeleton (The Interactive Fly)
• The Interactive Fly: Stress Activated and Cell Motility Feedback Pathway - "The Jun-N-terminal kinase (JNK) activated MAP kinase cascade links the Rho family of GTP-binding proteins to transcription of Jun." (Society for Developmental Biology)
• Kimball's Biology Pages: The Cytoskeleton - Basic information on the cytoskeleton and its roles in establishing cell shape, providing mechanical strength, locomotion, chromosome separation in mitosis and meiosis, and intracellular transport of organelles. (Beginner's Level)
• Lymphocyte Recirculation and Homing in Immunity - Very nice images and diagrams showing how lymphocytes recirculate, locomote and home. (Art Anderson)
• Nature Cell Biology: Focus on Cytoskeleton - "This section contains all of the material on the topic of cytoskeleton dynamics and molecular motors published in Nature Cell Biology to date. This includes Editorials, News and Views, Review articles, and, of course, original research papers."
• Primary Cilium Resource Page - A database on primary cilia. (Sam Bowser)
• Wikipedia - Free online encyclopedia with basic overviews. (Beginner's Level)
  • Bacterial Gliding
  • Chemotaxis
  • Cytoskeleton

See also the Cell Adhesion and Extracellular Matrix, Cell Cycle and Cytokinesis and Signal Transduction pages.

Cell Motility Movies

• Collective Migration of an Epithelial Cell Sheet and Single-Cell Migration of a Neutrophil Chasing a Bacterium - QuickTime movies comparing the migration of an cell sheet during epithelial wound closure to the chemotaxis of a human polymorphonuclear leukocyte or neutrophil, an immune cell. (Gabriel Fenteany, University of Connecticut)
• Kinesin Movies - "The movies on this page illustrate motility of Kinesin-1 (formerly conventional kinesin) and the kinesin-related proteins." (Kinesin Home Page)
• Migration 101: Movies and Photos - Movement of different types of cells, such as fibroblasts, neurons, muscle cells and Dictyostelium, from a number of research groups. (Cell Migration Consortium)
• Sibley Lab Video Archive - Apicomplexan parasites moving by a process called gliding motility, an actin-based form of movement they use to actively penetrate their hosts cells.
• A Video Tour of Cell Motility - An animated story of cell motility based on a collection of studies by Vic Small's group. (Austrian Academy of Sciences in Salzburg, Austria)

See also the Microscope Image Galleries and Databases section of the Microscopy page.

Tumor Cell Invasion and Metastasis

• National Cancer Institute (NCI)
  • Cancer.gov - NCI's comprehensive cancer information resource.
  • Cancer Facts: Metastatic Cancer: Questions and Answers (Beginner's Level)
  • Understanding Cancer Series: Angiogenesis - Slide-based overview of angiogenesis and tumor growth and metastasis. (Beginner's Level)
• Nature Reviews Cancer - Focus on Metastasis - "[O]nline Focus that is devoted to the metastatic process." (Nature Publishing Group)
• Wikipedia - Free online encyclopedia with basic overviews. (Beginner's Level)
  • Cancer
  • Metastasis
  • Tumor

See also the Cancer Resources section of the Cell Cycle and Cytokinesis page and the Angiogenesis, Cell Adhesion and Extracellular Matrix and Signal Transduction pages.

Wound Healing and Tissue Repair

Cell motilty is integral to tissue repair. Cell movement, extracellular matrix deposition, local tissue contraction and remodeling, cell proliferation and differentiation are all part of the complex process of wound healing, which can involve many different types of cells, including blood platelets, lymphocytes and leukocytes (especially neutrophils and macrophages), fibroblasts, epithelial cells and endothelial cells.

• Compendium of Published Wound Healing Studies on Genetically Modified Mice (Richard Grose, Cancer Research UK)
• Wound Update - "A monthly review of the wound healing literature [...] provided as a service to the wound healing community to allow rapid access to relevant publications indexed on the Medline database." (Keith Moore, WoundSci)

See also the Angiogenesis, Cell Adhesion and Extracellular Matrix, Cell Cycle and Cytokinesis and Molecular and Cell Biology of Development pages.

Individual Cytoskeletal Components: Actin Filaments, Microtubules and Intermediate Filaments

• Mark Hill's Cytoskeleton Page - Information on the actin filament system and probes for study. (Mark Hill, University of New South Wales, Australia)
• A Web Atlas of Cellular Structures: Actin and Microtubules - Fluorescence images of the actin and microtubule cytoskeleton of cultured epithelial cells with brief text descriptions. (Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) (Just above Beginner's Level)
  • Nucleus and Actin - Images of the nucleus and actin cytoskeleton of cultured epithelial cells.
  • Nucleus and Microtubules - Images of the nucleus and microtubule cytoskeleton of cultured epithelial cells.
• Wikipedia - Free online encyclopedia with basic overviews. (Beginner's Level)
  • Actin
  • Intermediate Filament
  • Microtubule

Molecular Motors (Muscle and Non-Muscle)

• Kinesin Home Page - Resources devoted to kinesins and kinesin-based intracellular transport.
• The Medical Biochemistry Page: Muscle Biochemistry - Overview of muscle contraction. (Michael W. King, Indiana University School of Medicine)
• Mucking About with Myosin Motor Mutants - Dictyostelium genetics and myosin motors. (Bruce Patterson, University of Arizona)
• Myosin Home Page (Tony Hodge, Medical Research Council, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK)
• Wikipedia - Free online encyclopedia with basic overviews. (Beginner's Level)
  • Muscle
  • Myosin

Discussion Groups

• CYTONET/bionet.cellbiol.cytonet - Cytoskeleton, plasma membrane, and plant and fungal cell walls. (Usenet newsgroup archives from BIOSCI/bionet; can also be accessed through Google Groups: bionet)

See also the Discussion Groups section of the General Resources and Tutorials page.

Labs Studying Cytoskeleton, Cell Motilty or Motors

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