title: Myosin function in the motile behaviour of cells.
abstract: Cells undergo a wide variety of movements, such as directed locomotion, extension and retraction of cell surface projections, saltatory movement of intracellular particles and cytoplasmic streaming. These events involve changes in the organization and function of cytoskeletal structures that contain actin and myosin. Dictyostelium has proven to be a very useful model system for studying these events. Its actomyosin-based motility resembles that of mammalian cells and has been extensively characterized, from the standpoints both of biochemistry and cell biology. Furthermore, the Dictyostelium cytoskeleton can be specifically altered using gene-targeting and other molecular genetic approaches.
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Medical Research, London, UK.
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Manstein
mesh_terms: D000199:Actins / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000502:physiology; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000502:physiology; D004023:Dictyostelium / Q000166:cytology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D009218:Myosins / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D000199:Actins; D009218:Myosins