Infographic: Red Blood Cell Shape

What happens when myosin inside red blood cells can't do its job?

Written byAshley Yeager
| 1 min read

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In healthy red blood cells (RBCs), myosin fibers (blue) contract, pulling on actin (pink) and spectrin proteins (purple) connected to the cell membrane and helping to give the cells their distinct, indented shape (below, top panel). When the myosin fiber is experimentally manipulated so that it slackens or detaches from the cell-membrane proteins, red blood cells instead take on an oval shape (bottom panel).

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Meet the Author

  • Ashley started at The Scientist in 2018. Before joining the staff, she worked as a freelance editor and writer, a writer at the Simons Foundation, and a web producer at Science News, among other positions. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a master’s degree in science writing from MIT. Ashley edits the Scientist to Watch and Profile sections of the magazine and writes news, features, and other stories for both online and print.

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