Other research groups had concluded that p63 is essential for the maturation of the
daughter cells, not for the maintenance of the stem cell lineage.
Surprisingly, the team observed that such confinement resulted in the abnormal division of a single cancer cell into three or four
daughter cells at a much higher rate than typical.
However, the factors that drive
daughter cells to be identical or different remain poorly understood by scientists.
But how the production of
daughter cells from the different stem cell types is coordinated within a single niche is virtually unknown.
After analyzing the videotapes, Stewart's team found that
daughter cells aren't as alike as they look.
Citation: Pekka Katajisto et al.; "Asymmetric apportioning of aged mitochondria between
daughter cells is required for stemness"; Science, 2015; DOI: 10.1126/science.1260384
The researchers point out that two
daughter cells arise from a single sensory organ precursor mother cell in the fly peripheral nervous system, and that among the
daughter cells, Notch is activated in one and not in the other.
When bound to one region, EBNA1 helps initiate replication of the viral episome and the dispersal of the two copies into the
daughter cells. When bound to the other region, however, EBNA1 somehow protects the viral DNA from being eliminated by the cell.
When young brain stem cells split in two, they wall off damaged proteins in one
daughter cell, leaving the other spry and ready to divide again, researchers report in the Sept.
The
daughter cell is smaller than the mother, therefore we can recognize which is the
daughter cell after budding (Fig.
We tend to assume that when single-celled organisms divide asexually, they produce two identical
daughter cells. But when diatoms divide, they produce one
daughter cell that is slightly smaller than its sister.