Cytokinesis in Animal Cells

This book traces the history of the major ideas and gives an account of our current knowledge of cytokinesis.

R. Rappaport (Author)

9780521019361, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 8 September 2005

404 pages, 100 b/w illus. 4 tables
22.9 x 15.4 x 2.4 cm, 0.614 kg

"Cytokinesis would make a nice addition to every biologist's library because it is both a useful primer about the cell biology of cytokinesis and a reminder of why many of us became excited by cell and developmental biology." Edward M. Bonder, BioScience

Cytokinesis is the division of the cell body that follows the sorting and transport of chromosomes. This book traces the history of some of the major ideas in the field and gives an account of our current knowledge of animal cytokinesis. It contains descriptions of division in different kinds of cells and the proposed explanations of the mechanisms underlying the visible events. Experiments devised to test cell division theories are described and explained. The forces necessary for cytokinesis now appear to originate from the interaction of linear polymers and motor molecules that have roles in force production, motion and shape change that occur in other phases of the biology of the cell. The localization of the force-producing division mechanism to a restricted linear part of the subsurface is caused by the mitotic apparatus, the same cytoskeletal structure that ensures orderly mitosis.

Preface
1. Normal cell division
2. Theories of cell division
3. The site of the division mechanism
4. Nature of the division mechanism
5. Positioning the division mechanism
6. Formation of the division mechanism
7. The stimulus-response system
8. Division mechanism function and its consequences
9. Informative variations on the normal process
10. Conclusion
Index.

Subject Areas: Animal physiology [PSVD], Cellular biology [cytology PSF], Developmental biology [PSC], Genetics [non-medical PSAK]