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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...