ANAT 262 Lecture Notes - Spindle Apparatus, Intermediate Filament, Ultimate Tensile Strength
21 Aug 2012
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Document Summary
Cytoskeleton is made of three components: microtubules, actin, intermediate filaments. Main functions of the cytoskeleton are: structure and support. Actin contraction allows the cell to move away from a repulsive cue: intracellular transport (highway to move vesicles) Intracellular transport nerve cell sends out growth cone to sense the environ- ment: contraction and motility (ex: muscle cells) Centrioles organize microtubules (negative at centrioles and positive end out: spatial organization. Tensile strength - cell is squishy, it has structure and resistance (tensile strength) The term cytoskeleton may in one sense have an unfortunate connotation since it im- plies that the various structural elements making up the cytoskeleton form a static struc- tural framework similar to the bone skeleton that frames the body. Well this only partly is true because certain types of cytoskeleton elements are more or less permanent features of the cell.
