Sister cells' shared fate: How a cytoplasmic bridge triggers synchronized cell death

Originally published by Bruno Geoffroy, University of Montreal, on February 25, 2025

 Credit: Developmental Cell (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2025.01.002

Sister cells are a pair of cells that share the same mother cell. In a new study published in Developmental Cell, researchers led by Université de Montréal (UdeM) professor Greg FitzHarris show how the early mouse embryo gets rid of the defective or unneeded cells in pairs.

"Such a mechanism could serve to ensure the elimination of cells with a common adverse history, such as DNA damage or aneuploidy, an abnormal number of chromosomes in cells known to be one of the main causes of infertility," said FitzHarris, a researcher at the UdeM-affiliated hospital research center, the CRCHUM.

In the new study, first author Filip Vasilev, a former postdoctoral fellow in FitzHarris' laboratory, shows that abscission, the final step of cell division, is delayed in the early mouse embryo, leaving sister cells connected by a stable cytoplasmic bridge.

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