title: Nocodazole does not synchronize cells: implications for cell-cycle control and whole-culture synchronization.
abstract: It has been predicted that nocodazole-inhibited cells are not synchronized because nocodazole-arrested cells with a G2-phase amount of DNA would not have a narrow cell-size range reflecting the cell size of some specific, presumably G2-phase, cell-cycle age. Size measurements of nocodazole-inhibited cells now fully confirm this prediction. Further, release from nocodazole inhibition does not produce cells that move through the cell cycle mimicking the passage of normal unperturbed cells through the cell cycle. Nocodazole, an archetypal whole-culture synchronization method, can inhibit growth to produce cells with a G2-phase amount of DNA, but such cells are not synchronized. Cells produced by a selective (i.e., non-whole-culture) method not only have a specific DNA content, but also have a narrow size distribution. The current view of cell-cycle control that is based on methods that are not suitable for cell-cycle analysis must therefore be reconsidered when results are based on whole-culture synchronization.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-0620, USA. cooper@umich.edu
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.forename: Geetha
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Iyer
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tarquini
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bissett
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods; D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000187:drug effects*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D048429:Cell Size / Q000187:drug effects; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm / Q000378:metabolism; D016195:G2 Phase / Q000187:drug effects; D007939:Leukemia L1210 / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D051379:Mice; D015739:Nocodazole / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D004273:DNA, Neoplasm; D015739:Nocodazole