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In the August issue of the scientific journal Nature Cell Biology, Lilianna Solnica-Krezel, an associate professor of biological sciences at Vanderbilt, and Anand Chandrasekhar, assistant professor of biological sciences at the University of Missouri, Columbia, report having found a key protein that directs the massive cell migrations that take place during an early stage in the development of the zebrafish. They found that, not only does this protein, called Strabismus, direct the migration of cells that gives the developing fetus its initial shape and structure but it is also required for the migration of nerve cells within the developing zebrafish brain, a type of cell motion that also takes place during human brain development. The same protein has previously been identified in the development of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, where it affects the orientation of cells that form the fly's wings and compound eyes. A closely related protein found in mice is implicated in malformation of the neural tube, the tubular structure that develops into the brain and spinal cord. Failure of neural tube closure is the underlying cause of spina bifida that afflicts between 800 to 1,000 babies born each year in the United States.
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