biosights: January 20, 2014

Motors give a new twist to platelet activation

The discoid shape of resting platelets is maintained by a peripheral ring of bundled microtubules called the marginal band. Diagouraga et al. reveal that, upon platelet activation, the motor protein dynein slides microtubules apart, inducing marginal band coiling and the conversion of platelets to a spherical shape. This biosights episode presents the paper by Diagouraga et al. from the January 20, 2014, issue of The Journal of Cell Biology and includes an interview with senior author Karin Sadoul (Institut Albert Bonniot, Grenoble, France). Produced by Caitlin Sedwick and Ben Short. See the associated paper in JCB for details on the funding provided to support this original research.

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