A fruitful tree: developing the dendritic nucleation model of actin-based cell motility

Abstract

A fundamental question in cell biology concerns how cells move, and this has been the subject of intense research for decades. In the 1990s, a major leap forward was made in our understanding of cell motility, with the proposal of the dendritic nucleation model. This essay describes the events leading to the development of the model, including findings from many laboratories and scientific disciplines. The story is an excellent example of the scientific process in action, with the combination of multiple perspectives leading to robust conclusions.