title: Mitotic spindle: disturbing a subtle balance.
abstract: Mitotic spindles maintain a roughly constant length in metaphase, so the forces between the spindle poles are balanced. A new study involving screening molecules believed to mediate this force balance has found that spindle length is relatively insensitive to perturbations of molecular motor force-generating activities, but more sensitive to perturbation of microtubule assembly regulators and chromosome cohesion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Odde
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D002842:Chromatids / Q000502:physiology; D008677:Metaphase / Q000502:physiology; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins / Q000502:physiology; D008954:Models, Biological; D020409:Molecular Motor Proteins / Q000502:physiology; D008941:Spindle Apparatus / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins; D020409:Molecular Motor Proteins