title: Scaling, selection, and evolutionary dynamics of the mitotic spindle.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Cellular structures such as the nucleus, Golgi, centrioles, and spindle show remarkable diversity between species, but the mechanisms that produce these variations in cell biology are not known.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Here we investigate the mechanisms that contribute to variations in morphology and dynamics of the mitotic spindle, which orchestrates chromosome segregation in all Eukaryotes and positions the division plane in many organisms. We use high-throughput imaging of the first division in nematodes to demonstrate that the measured effects of spontaneous mutations, combined with stabilizing selection on cell size, are sufficient to quantitatively explain both the levels of within-species variation in the spindle and its diversity over ∼100 million years of evolution. Furthermore, our finding of extensive within-species variation for the spindle demonstrates that there is not just one "wild-type" form, rather that cellular structures can exhibit a surprisingly broad diversity of naturally occurring behaviors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results argue that natural selection acts predominantly on cell size and indirectly influences the spindle through the scaling of the spindle with cell size. Previous studies have shown that the spindle also scales with cell size during early development. Thus, the scaling of the spindle with cell size controls its variation over both ontogeny and phylogeny.
authors: School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, FAS Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. Electronic address: rfarhadifar@cgr.harvard.edu.
authors: Reza
authors: R
authors: Farhadifar
authors: Department of Biology and University of Florida Genetics Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
authors: Charles F
authors: CF
authors: Baer
authors: Laboratory of Molecular Biology of the Cell, UMR 5239, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 69007 Lyon, France.
authors: Aurore-Cécile
authors: AC
authors: Valfort
authors: Department of Molecular Biosciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
authors: Erik C
authors: EC
authors: Andersen
authors: Experimental Center, Faculty of Medicine Carl Gustav Carus, Technische Universität Dresden, Fiedlerstrasse 42, 01307 Dresden, Germany.
authors: Thomas
authors: T
authors: Müller-Reichert
authors: Laboratory of Molecular Biology of the Cell, UMR 5239, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 69007 Lyon, France.
authors: Marie
authors: M
authors: Delattre
authors: School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, FAS Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
authors: Daniel J
authors: DJ
authors: Needleman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002107:Caenorhabditis / Q000196:embryology / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000196:embryology / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D002455:Cell Division / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D048429:Cell Size; D020090:Chromosome Segregation / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D008954:Models, Biological; D009154:Mutation; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D013045:Species Specificity; D008941:Spindle Apparatus / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure