Magenta (DNA) and green (lysosome) fluorescent markers show that cells eject waste items from the cell before late mitosis.MITMitosis is a fundamental aspect of cell biology, learned by middle school trainees the world over. There are still molecular secrets embedded in the ubiquitous biological process. Scientists from MIT just recently discovered that daughter cells are given a new beginning by the mother cell which ejects waste products from the cell, in a procedure called exocytosis, prior to cleavage. The findings, released today in eLife, build on the groups 2019 paper about the biomass characteristics associated with cell division.Rather than measure cells utilizing mass spectrometry, which requires lysing cells, the researchers had the ability to use quantitative stage microscopy and other strategies to image single living cells and determine their dry mass. Cells normally increase in mass as they prepare to divide and molecules are constantly entering and leaving through the cell membrane. But the scientists had the ability to detect a noticeable dip in dry mass in between metaphase and anaphase in actively dividing cells. Using fluorescent markers on such cells lysosomes, the authors of the paper had the ability to plainly see when waste was being flushed out early in mitosis.
