When to close cursors using MySQLdb

I'm building a WSGI web app and I have a MySQL database. I'm using MySQLdb, which provides cursors for executing statements and getting results. What is the standard practice for getting and closing cursors? In particular, how long should my cursors last? Should I get a new cursor for each transaction?

I believe you need to close the cursor before committing the connection. Is there any significant advantage to finding sets of transactions that don't require intermediate commits so that you don't have to get new cursors for each transaction? Is there a lot of overhead for getting new cursors, or is it just not a big deal?