Divide and Conquer

Cells divide from one into two by forming a "pursestring" that pinches the original cell in the middle to form two daughter cells. This image shows a mammalian cell getting ready to pinch into two daughter cells.

The purse-string is made up of the same molecular components found in our muscles. In this image, the muscle-like material is shown in red; it forms a band around the edge of the cell and at the middle where the purse-string like contraction occur. In the image, notice that the red purse-string appears to be cutting through the green filaments, the microtubules, near the middle of the cell.

P. Wadsworth, University of Massachusetts Amherst