Contact: Jim Barlow
jebarlow@uoregon.edu
541-346-3481
University of Oregon

Cell Division

Caption: A photomicrograph made using fluorescent light microscopy shows a one-cell stage Caenorhabditis elegans (roundworm) embryo undergoing cell division. Microtubules (green) are rigid protein polymers that organize, capture and move chromosomes (blue) made up of DNA. Chromosomes are in two groups, which are being pulled by microtubules towards opposite poles of the bipolar spindle. The microfilament cytoskeleton (red) is at the cell cortex just underneath the cell membrane. These longer, more flexible protein polymers must be organized into a "cleavage furrow" that pulls a circumferential ring of the cell surface into the center of the cell, ultimately dividing the single parent cell into two daughter cells at the end of cell division -- each with one complete set of chromosomes and genes. The organization and constriction of the cleavage furrow happens slightly later.

Credit: Courtesy of Bruce Bowerman

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