The phrase
"cell cortex" refers to a layer or region around the outer part of a cell. It is made up of a network of proteins and other structures that provide support and shape to the cell. Just like the cortex on our brain, the
cell cortex helps maintain the cell's structure and plays a role in important cell functions.
Full definition
Isotropic acto - myosin dynamics promote organization of the apical
cell cortex in epithelial cells.
Signals from the
polarized cell cortex (in green) in mouse oocytes regulate microtubule tyrosination (white) to generate spindle asymmetry in meiosis I.
E. Fischer - Friedrich, Y. Toyoda, C. Cedric, D. Müller, A. Hyman, F. Jülicher Rheology of the
active cell cortex in mitosis.
The coordinated assembly and disassembly of actin in
the cell cortex, which lies just beneath the plasma membrane, generates cortical actin waves that are crucial for important cell functions including migration and cell polarity.
By combining SNP - targeting allele - specific silencing and gain - of - function approaches, we showed that a 46 - glutamine expansion in human HTT was sufficient for a dominant - negative effect on spindle orientation and changes in the distribution within the spindle pole and
the cell cortex of dynein, p150Glued and NuMA in neural cells.
The cell cortex is a cytoskeletal meshwork of polymerized actin proteins that mechanically supports the inner side of the cellular plasma membrane.
Additionally, we showed that pinning of membrane lipids and proteins by
the cell cortex can induce local membrane reorganization dependent on the affinity of the pinning species.
Indeed, we find that
the cell cortex starts to behave dominantly fluid - like for frequencies lower than ~ 0.01 Hz.
Numerous biochemical and structural changes occur throughout the cell as the microtubule - based spindle assembles and attaches to the condensed chromosomes, segregates them, and signals to
the cell cortex to induce cleavage into two daughter cells through an actin - based contraction.