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Fig. 4 | BMC Biology

Fig. 4

From: Non-model model organisms

Fig. 4

Naegleria gruberi cells undergo a dramatic transformation between crawling amoebae and swimming flagellates, assembling an entire microtubule cytoskeleton along the way. The crawling amoebae (top left) lack cytoplasmic microtubules, but use their actin cytoskeleton (pink) to crawl with two types of protrusions (insets): actin-filled pseudopods and cytoplasm-filled spheres called blebs that appear after delamination of the cell membrane from the underlying actin cortex. Amoebae can respond to a variety of environmental signals by differentiating into a vigorously swimming flagellate (upper right). This process requires the transcription, translation, and assembly of an entire microtubule cytoskeleton (green), including tubulin. Amoebae also can undergo a closed mitosis (lower left), during which the nuclear envelope remains intact, isolating the spindle microtubules (blue) from the cytoplasm. Mitotic microtubules are thought to be built from divergent tubulin isoforms that are expressed prior to mitosis, and then rapidly degraded after cytokinesis

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