This book is directed at advanced undergraduate and postgraduate
students-and their teachers-who are involved in those areas of cell
biology which require a basic knowledge of cytoskeletal structure,
parti- cularly with respect to cell motility. It contains a core of
basic information on the cytoskeleton and focuses especially on its
functional aspects, from the swimming of spermatozoa to the crawling of
cultured cells across their culture dish; from the transport of vesicles
and organelles along nerve axons, to the orderly segregation of
chromosomes at mitosis. Cytoskeleton research spans a wide range of
scientific disciplines. I t is as important for students or research
workers investigating, for example, the deposition of the higher plant
cell wall to have easy access to a core of basic information regarding
microtubules as it is for someone interested in endocytosis and the fate
of cell surface receptors. The authors are involved in the teaching of
the cytoskeleton and cell motility at all levels of undergraduat study
at University College London, but each has a research interest in
different aspects of the subject: TMP in amoeboid locomotion, CAK in
gliding motility and JSH in cilia, flagella and mitosis.