title: Visualizing kinetochore architecture.
abstract: Kinetochores are large macromolecular assemblies that link chromosomes to spindle microtubules (MTs) during mitosis. Here we review recent advances in the study of core MT-binding kinetochore complexes using electron microcopy methods in vitro and nanometer-accuracy fluorescence microscopy in vivo. We synthesize these findings in novel three-dimensional models of both the budding yeast and vertebrate kinetochore in different stages of mitosis. There is a growing consensus that kinetochores are highly dynamic, supra-molecular machines that undergo dramatic structural rearrangements in response to MT capture and spindle forces during mitosis.
authors.affiliation: Biophysics Graduate Group, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States.
authors.forename: Gregory
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Alushin
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nogales
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D018386:Kinetochores / Q000378:metabolism*; D008677:Metaphase; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods*; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D008870:Microtubules / Q000378:metabolism; D008958:Models, Molecular; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D011487:Protein Conformation; D004718:Saccharomycetales / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D008941:Spindle Apparatus / Q000737:chemistry; D014714:Vertebrates
chemical_list: D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins; D005656:Fungal Proteins; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins; C120529:NDC80 protein, human; D009687:Nuclear Proteins