#cell development

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Counting Copies

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You have almost as many cells in your brain as there are stars in the Milky Way – roughly 200 billion – all of which came from a small pool of fast-dividing stem cells. In order for the brain to develop correctly as a foetus grows in the womb, not only is the number of cells important – they must also be the right types of cells in the right places. To find out more about how this happens, researchers developed a computer algorithm that can identify individual cells in living tissue (each cell is highlighted by a white spot in this image) and track what happens as they divide and specialise. Using fruit fly larvae as a simple model for humans, the researchers were able to continuously monitor developing larval brains for up to 24 hours. The results provide unprecedented insights into how complex organs like brains are built from single cells.

Written by Kat Arney

Image from work by Martin Hailstone and colleagues

Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, Oxford

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in eLife, May 2020

Building Bridges

It’s a classic ‘chicken-and-egg’ situation. Microtubules are small tubes that provide essential structure and transport routes for a whole variety of processes inside our cells. But during very early development our cells don’t have a centrosome – the structure that usually organises these microtubules, neatly laying them out across the cell to perform their functions. So how do they function without their guide steering them in the right direction? By looking at living cells in a developing mouse embryo that was modified to produce a fluorescent protein alongside its microtubules (pictured in blue), researchers spotted the answer: The cells are connected by dense bridges of microtubules (the light blue structures joining each cell), which direct the growth of more microtubules inside. Strands emanating out from these bridges reach across the cell to help transport key molecules that ultimately direct the growth from these few cells into a whole independent organism.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Image from work by J. Zenker and colleagues

Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore

Image reprinted with permission from the AAAS - the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Published in Science, September 2017