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 ...