Actin is one of the most abundant proteins and ubiquitously expressed in all eukaryotes. In recent years, the analysis of structure and function of such complexes has shed new light on actin's role in cellular and tissue morphogenesis, locomotion and various forms of intracellular motility, but also on its role in nuclear processes like chromatin architecture and transcription. Progress in understanding these different physiological phenomena, but also in unravelling the basis of actin-based pathophysiological processes has been made by combining video microscopy, molecular biology, genetics and biochemistry. Thus, the current research on actin, as ongoing in many international laboratories, is a "hot spot" in basic and translational research in life sciences. In this book on "The Actin Cytoskeleton", twelve internationally renowned authors present specific chapters that cover their recent work concerned with the various roles of actin mentioned above. This comprehensive volume is therefore an attractive handbook for teachers and students in many fields of medicine and pharmacology.

A Top 25 CHOICE 2016 Title, and recipient of the CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title (OAT) Award. How much energy is released in ATP hydrolysis? How many mRNAs are in a cell? How genetically similar are two random people? What is faster, transcription or translation?Cell Biology by the Numbers explores these questions and dozens of others provid

This volume addresses the structural and functional roles of the cytoskeleton and its dysfunctions which often lead to disease. It provides thorough discussion of microtubules, microfilaments, intermediate filaments, and cytoskeletal functions and dysfunctions in different organ systems. Comprehensive yet concise. The Cytoskeleton In Health And Disease presents cutting-edge discoveries balanced with background information and highlights the new aspects of the research and its impact on the design of new strategies or the identification of new targets for therapeutic intervention. There is a significant need for a book on this topic, as interest in the cytoskeleton continues to grow as causes and cures for cytoskeletal diseases are further explored in biomedical research. This book is essential reading for scientists, students, and teachers interested in expanding their knowledge related to the cytoskeleton. New researchers entering the field will find classic and well as contemporary information not easily found in the current literature or internet resources.

Outstanding scientific advances over the last decades unceasingly reveal real complexity of wound-healing process, astonishing in its staged progression, as life is unfolding itself. This natural course of tissue repair seems to bear thousands of overlapping molecular and macroscopic processes that nowadays only start to unfold to our knowledge. The present volume collecting recent scientific references proposes to readers a two-folded audacious goal. First, an updated design of intimate cellular mechanisms is entailed in tissue regeneration that emanates from the first section of the book. Next, a multidisciplinary therapeutic perspective that focuses on macroscopic healing throughout the second part of this work adds clinically integrated observation. Practical diagnostic and treatment information is appended in each chapter that may equally help experienced clinicians or dedicated students and researchers in broadening essential breaking points of their work. It is the wish of all multidisciplinary experts who gather prominent author's panel of this volume to incorporate latest medical reports and compel limits of current understanding for better tissue regeneration, limb salvage, and improved quality of life of our patients.

The cytoskeleton is the intracellular filament system that controls the morphology of a cell, allows it to move, and provides trafficking routes for intracellular transport. It comprises three major filament systems-actin, microtubules, and intermediate filaments-along with a host of adaptors, regulators, molecular motors, and additional structural proteins. This textbook presents a comprehensive and up-to-date view of the cytoskeleton, cataloguing its many different components and explaining how they are functionally integrated in different cellular processes. It starts by laying out the basic molecular hardware, before describing in detail how these components are assembled in cells and linked to neighboring cells and the extracellular matrix to maintain tissue architecture. It then surveys the roles of the cytoskeleton in processes such as intracellular transport, cell motility, signal transduction, and cell division. The book is thus essential reading for students learning about intracellular structure. It also represents a vital reference for all cell and developmental biologists working in this field.

Since the discovery of actin by Straub in the 1950’s and the pioneering work of Oosawa on actin self-assembly in helical laments in the 1960’s, many books and conference proceedings have been published. As one of the most essential p- teins in life, essential for movement in organisms rangingfrom bacteria to higher eukaryotes, it is no surprise that actin has fascinated generations of scientists from many different elds. Actin can be considered as a “living treasure” of biology; the kinetics and thermodynamics of self-assembly, the dissipative nature of actin po- merization, the molecular interactions of monomeric and polymerized actin with regulators, the mechanical properties of actin gels, and more recently the force p- ducing motile and morphogenetic processes organized by the actin nanomachine in response to signaling, are all milestones in actin research. Discoveries that directly derive from and provide deeper insight into the fundamental properties of actin are constantly being made, making actin an ever appealing research molecule. At the same time, the explosion in new technologies and techniques in biological sciences has served to attract researchers from an expanding number of disciplines, to study actin. This book presents the latest developments of these new multiscale approaches of force and movement powered by self-assembly processes, with the hope to opening our perspectives on the many areas of actin-based motility research.

This book presents a full spectrum of views on current approaches to modeling cell mechanics. The authors come from the biophysics, bioengineering and physical chemistry communities and each joins the discussion with a unique perspective on biological systems. Consequently, the approaches range from finite element methods commonly used in continuum mechanics to models of the cytoskeleton as a cross-linked polymer network to models of glassy materials and gels. Studies reflect both the static, instantaneous nature of the structure, as well as its dynamic nature due to polymerization and the full array of biological processes. While it is unlikely that a single unifying approach will evolve from this diversity, it is the hope that a better appreciation of the various perspectives will lead to a highly coordinated approach to exploring the essential problems and better discussions among investigators with differing views.

The cytoskeleton is a highly dynamic intracellular platform constituted by a three-dimensional network of proteins responsible for key cellular roles as structure and shape, cell growth and development, and offering to the cell with "motility" that being the ability of the entire cell to move and for material to be moved within the cell in a regulated fashion (vesicle trafficking). The present edition of Cytoskeleton provides new insights into the structure-functional features, dynamics, and cytoskeleton's relationship to diseases. The authors' contribution in this book will be of substantial importance to a wide audience such as clinicians, researches, educators, and students interested in getting updated knowledge about molecular basis of cytoskeleton, such as regulation of cell vital processes by actin-binding proteins as cell morphogenesis, motility, their implications in cell signaling, as well as strategies for clinical trial and alternative therapies based in multitargeting molecules to tackle diseases, that is, cancer.