Cell structure and dynamics.

摘要

Research into the molecular basis of cellular structure and function continues at astonishing pace. The past few years have seen substantial advances along axes defined by methodology, scale and phylogeny. Structural studies designed to fit atomic structures into supramolecular envelopes specified by negative stain or cryo-electron microscopy are becoming more commonplace as the methods required to accumulate structures from two dimensional crystals or individual molecules sprayed onto mica continue to be refined. Such studies provide new insight into the structure and function of large molecular ensembles. New applications of single molecule biophysics have begun to reveal in great detail the mechanisms of motor and polymer function at the molecular level, while forward and reverse genetic studies are converging to reveal how various cytoskeletal structures and their related motors participate in cellular and organismal function. Advances have also spanned phylogeny, as bacteria and archaea once thought to have no discernable cytoskeleton in fact have robust arrays of cellular filaments that represent at least three classes of eukaryotic cytoskeletal structures. Thus the next challenge will be to decipher how the parts of a cell work at the molecular level, and taking single molecule assays into living cells to glean the physical basis of form and function will be the name of the game.