Issue 23 / June 2002
Heterocyst or not heterocyst?
What is it in a cell that drives it to become one type of cell rather than another? Or for that matter, what is it in a cell that summons it not to budge? It is the fascinating world of cell fate, one of the most intriguing questions developmental biologists have been asking themselves for centuries now. The blue-green algae cyanobacteria Anabaena is a perfect illustration of one model which has been on the scene for some time: cell differentiation occurs thanks to the diffusion of molecules, which creates a cell gradient.
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Protein Spotlight (ISSN 1424-4721) is a monthly review written by the
Swiss-Prot team of the
SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics.
Spotlight articles describe a specific protein or family of proteins on an informal tone. |