title: Dynamic shape changes of cytoplasmic organelles translocating along microtubules.
abstract: Transient shape changes of organelles translocating along microtubules are directly visualized in thinly spread cytoplasmic processes of the marine foraminifer. Allogromia laticollaris, by a combination of high-resolution video-enhanced microscopy and fast-freezing electron microscopy. The interacting side of the organelle flattens upon binding to a microtubule, as if to maximize contact with it. Organelles typically assume a teardrop shape while moving, as if they were dragged through a viscous medium. Associated microtubules bend around attachments of the teardrop-shaped organelles, suggesting that they too are acted on by the forces deforming the organelles. An 18-nm gap between the organelles and the microtubules is periodically bridged by 10-nm-thick cross-bridge structures that may be responsible for the binding and motive forces deforming organelles and microtubules.
authors: Laboratory of Neuro-otolaryngology, National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke, Bethesda, Maryland 20892.
authors: B
authors: B
authors: Kachar
authors: P C
authors: PC
authors: Bridgman
authors: T S
authors: TS
authors: Reese
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003593:Cytoplasm / Q000648:ultrastructure; D056890:Eukaryota / Q000166:cytology / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D008870:Microtubules / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D009940:Organoids / Q000648:ultrastructure*