Malpighian tubules (MTs) are recognised as the main excretory organ in insects, ensuring water and mineral balance. Haematophagous insects incorporate with each meal a large quantity of blood, producing a particularly large volume of urine in a few hours. In the present study, we report the presence of an allatotropin-like (AT-like) peptide in MTs of Triatoma infestans (Klug). The AT-like conte...

During anaphase, distinct populations of microtubules (MTs) form by either centrosome-dependent or augmin-dependent nucleation. It remains largely unknown whether these different MT populations contribute distinct functions to cytokinesis. Here we show that augmin-dependent MTs are required for the progression of both furrow ingression and abscission. Augmin depletion reduced the accumulation o...

In Alzheimer's disease, tau is hyperphosphorylated, which is thought to detach it from microtubules (MTs), induce MT destabilization, and promote aggregation. Using a previously described in vivo model, we investigated whether hyperphosphorylation impacts tau function in wild-type and transgenic mice. We found that after anesthesia-induced hypothermia, MT-free tau was hyperphosphorylated, which...

Birefringence of the mitotic apparatus (MA) and its change during mitosis in sea urchin eggs were quantitatively determined using the birefringence detection apparatus reported in the preceding paper (Hiramoto et al ., 1981, J. Cell Biol. 89:115-120) . The birefringence and the form of the MA are represented by five parameters: peak retardation (SP), trough retardation (St), interpolar distance...

We reported earlier that isolated plasma membranes trigger a number of responses comprising contact inhibition of motility, including loss of oriented detyrosinated microtubules (Glu MTs) from the lamella of motile fibroblasts. In this study, we show that the membranes trigger this loss of Glu MTs, not by binding to cells, but by removing an essential component from the medium necessary to main...

a multiple colorimetric assay has been introduced to evaluate the proliferation and determination of survival fraction (sf) of irradiated cells. the estimation of sf based on the cell‑growth curve information is the major advantage of this assay. in this study, the utility of multiple‑mts assay for the sf estimation of irradiated ht‑29 colon cancer cells, which were plated before irradiation, w...

M uir-Torre syndrome (MTS; MIM 158320) is an autosomal dominant predisposition to skin tumours and various internal malignancies. Clinical criteria for a diagnosis of MTS are the synchronous or metachronous occurrence of at least one sebaceous gland neoplasia and at least one internal neoplasm in a patient (regardless of the family history). 2 The sebaceous gland neoplasias comprise adenomas, e...

The immature processes that give rise to both axons and dendrites contain microtubules (MTs) that are uniformly oriented with their plus-ends distal to the cell body, and this pattern is preserved in the developing axon. In contrast, developing dendrites gradually acquire nonuniform MT polarity orientation due to the addition of a subpopulation of oppositely oriented MTs (Baas, P. W., M. M. Bla...

BACKGROUND Consumption of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) contaminated products can pose a risk of development of various diseases in human and animals due to radical production. The scope of this work is to evaluate the efficacy of milk thistle seed (MTS), as a radical scavenger, on serum biochemistry, lipid profile and liver enzymes against AFB1 in broiler chickens contaminated with AFB1. MATERIALS AND...

The structure and function of microtubules (MTs) are regulated by post-translational modifications of tubulin subunits, such as acetylation of the Lys40 residue of α-tubulin. Regulation of the organization and dynamics of MTs is essential for the precise formation of the mitotic spindle. Spindle MTs are highly acetylated, but the mechanism regulating this acetylation is largely unknown. Furry (...