Scientists Discover Structure That Helps Hold Together Cells

Posted on July 11, 2015

Scientists from the University of Warwick have discovered a new structure helps hold together cells. The structure is called the mesh. The 3-D view above shows microtubules (green tubes) of the mitotic spindle are held together by a yellow network (the mesh).

The mesh is defined as a "network of microtubule connectors that stabilizes individual kinetochore fibers of the mitotic spindle." The scientists say the discovery changes our understanding of the cell's internal scaffolding. Cancer cells also have the mesh. The mesh is made of a protein that researchers found changes in certain cancers, such as breast cancer and bladder cancer. This could be a potential drug target.

The research was led by Dr Stephen Royle, associate professor and senior Cancer Research UK Fellow at the division of biomedical cell biology at Warwick Medical School. The discovery was made by accident while researchers were looking at the 25 nanometer wide gaps between microtubules - part of the cells' internal skeleton. One of Dr. Royle's PhD students was examining structures called mitotic spindles using a technique called tomography. This technique is like a hospital CAT scan but on a much smaller scale. The students were able to see the previously unknown structure which they later named the mesh.

Dr. Royle says in a statement, "As a cell biologist you dream of finding a new structure in cells but it's so unlikely. Scientists have been looking at cells since the 17th Century and so to find something that no-one has seen before is amazing."

Dr. Royle also says, "We had been looking in 2D and this gave the impression that 'bridges' linked microtubules together. This had been known since the 1970s. All of a sudden, tilting the fibre in 3D showed us that the bridges were not single struts at all but a web-like structure linking all the microtubules together."

A research paper on the discovery was published here in the journal, eLife.