An MBoC Favorite: Myosin-1a is critical for normal brush border structure and composition

In celebration of MBoC's first 20 years, members of the Editorial Board, members of the ASCB Council, and others comment on their favorite MBoC papers from the past two decades.

Figure 2B of this paper shows two Eppendorf tubes containing mouse feces that illustrate the unexpectedly normal functionality of the intestinal tract of knockout mice lacking brush border myosin (myosin-1a; Tyska et al., 2005). The authors used a variety of cell biological and biochemical methods to identify profound structural defects in brush border microvilli. However, their resilient subject animal compensated structurally by redistributing intermediate filaments and the normally basolateral myosin-1c to the apical microvilli, and functionally by up-regulating normal mucosal repair mechanisms. This paper illustrates the perseverance and ingenuity of both the scientist and the subject.