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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Jul 20.
Published in final edited form as: Rep Prog Phys. 2017 Jan 27;80(3):036601. doi: 10.1088/1361-6633/aa5282

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Living animal cells must move and deform to accomplish essential processes such as cell division or cell motility. These active movements are thought to be generated by cytoskeletal filaments and molecular motors within the cell. Motors such as myosin can generate contractile forces within actin networks. Actin filaments can also polymerize, and together with actin binding proteins to form loose open networks such as the lamellipodium, or bundled structures such as stress fibers. These structural elements in the cell can all influence the shape and movement of cell boundaries.