A Snapshot of Cell Division
This may look like a giant supernova in space, but it’s actually a microscopic image of cytoskeletal proteins and DNA in the metaphase stage of cell division. You can see two of the main proteins that make up the cell’s cytoskeleton – actin (in red and orange) and tubulin (in white) – as well as the cell’s DNA packed into its chromosomes (in blue).
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DownloadA Snapshot of Cell Division
This may look like a giant supernova in space, but it’s actually a microscopic image of cytoskeletal proteins and DNA in the metaphase stage of cell division. You can see two of the main proteins that make up the cell’s cytoskeleton – actin (in red and orange) and tubulin (in white) – as well as the cell’s DNA packed into its chromosomes (in blue).
What am I looking at?
This is an image of a cell during the metaphase stage of cell division. The orange indicates actin filaments (1). The white lines are microtubules (2). And the blue at the center is DNA packed into the cell’s chromosomes (3).
Biology in the background
Cell division is the process by which a single cell turns into two copies of itself. This image shows the stage of cell division where the chromosomes (3) are lined up at the center of the cell and are ready to be pulled to opposite ends of the cell along microtubules (2). Microtubules are the “highways” that cellular components travel along during cell division, allowing all the cellular components to be divided between the two so-called daughter cells. Actin filaments (1) also play a large role in the division of a cell, acting as scaffolding for other proteins to expand the cell and then pinch it off in the middle once the cell is ready to divide.
A microtubule is about 25 nanometers in diameter, or roughly 4,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. A chromosome is between 1 and 2 micrometers long, or roughly 50 to 100 times smaller than the width of a human hair. And an actin filament can be up to 15 micrometers long, or roughly seven times smaller than the width of a human hair.
Technique
These images were created using fluorescence microscopy.
Andy Moore, HHMI's Janelia Research Campus