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Science 26 June 2009:
Vol. 324. no. 5935, pp. 1654 - 1655
DOI: 10.1126/science.1176523
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Perspectives

Developmental Biology:

Phase Transition in a Cell

Loïc Le Goff and Thomas Lecuit

Most eukaryotic cells divide into equal halves, but cell division can be asymmetric when the two daughter cells acquire different cell fate determinants by unequal segregation of RNAs, proteins, and/or organelles. Asymmetric division controls cell diversification required for embryonic development (1) or the homeostasis of adult tissues (2), and in some animals, such as the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, it can occur as early as the one-cell stage fertilized egg (zygote). On page 1729 in this issue, Brangwynne et al. (3) report an unsual strategy for polarizing the cytoplasm in the one-cell stage C. elegans embryo.

IBDML, UMR6216 CNRS–Université de la Méditerranée. Campus de Luminy case 907, 13288 Marseille Cedex 09, France.

E-mail: lecuit{at}ibdml.univ-mrs.fr

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)