Biology 2382B Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Mitosis, Keratin, Plectin
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*** they are like ropes - very hard to pull them apart lengthwise. Helpful diagram for learning differences in cytoskeletal structures: ~ mainly used to hold things together - they have great tensile strengths. ~ different types of ifs in different cells - this is helpful b/c of cell specificity: if you know the if, you know the cell type. Keratin - found in epithelial (and deal epithelial) cells. Main job in living skin is to hold cells together. Links muscles cells together from the inside. Vimentin - found in mesenchymal cells (migratory cells - like fibroblasts for example) Lamin - found in the nucleus of all cells. Different types for different cells, but always present. Allows transcription to occur without the membrane collapsing. These come together as dimers and then tetramers (=dimer of 2. Tetramers are symmetrical - there is no polarity in if, even after they dimers) polymerize.