title: A Balance between Nuclear and Cytoplasmic Volumes Controls Spindle Length.
abstract: Proper assembly of the spindle apparatus is crucially important for faithful chromosome segregation during anaphase. Thanks to the effort over the last decades, we have very detailed information about many events leading to spindle assembly and chromosome segregation, however we still do not understand certain aspects, including, for example, spindle length control. When tight regulation of spindle size is lost, chromosome segregation errors emerge. Currently, there are several hypotheses trying to explain the molecular mechanism of spindle length control. The number of kinetochores, activity of molecular rulers, intracellular gradients, cell size, limiting spindle components, and the balance of the spindle forces seem to contribute to spindle size regulation, however some of these mechanisms are likely specific to a particular cell type. In search for a general regulatory mechanism, in our study we focused on the role of cell size and nuclear to cytoplasmic ratio in this process. To this end, we used relatively large cells isolated from 2-cell mouse embryos. Our results showed that the spindle size upper limit is not reached in these cells and suggest that accurate control of spindle length requires balanced ratio between nuclear and cytoplasmic volumes.
authors.affiliation: Central European Institute of Technology - Veterinary Research Institute, Hudcova 70, 621 00 Brno, Czech Republic.|Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetics AS CR, Rumburska 89, 277 21 Libechov, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Lucia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Novakova
authors.affiliation: Central European Institute of Technology - Veterinary Research Institute, Hudcova 70, 621 00 Brno, Czech Republic.|Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetics AS CR, Rumburska 89, 277 21 Libechov, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Kristina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kovacovicova
authors.affiliation: Central European Institute of Technology - Veterinary Research Institute, Hudcova 70, 621 00 Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Thanh Quang
authors.initials: TQ
authors.lastname: Dang-Nguyen
authors.affiliation: Central European Institute of Technology - Veterinary Research Institute, Hudcova 70, 621 00 Brno, Czech Republic.|Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetics AS CR, Rumburska 89, 277 21 Libechov, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sodek
authors.affiliation: Central European Institute of Technology - Veterinary Research Institute, Hudcova 70, 621 00 Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Michal
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Skultety
authors.affiliation: Central European Institute of Technology - Veterinary Research Institute, Hudcova 70, 621 00 Brno, Czech Republic.|Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetics AS CR, Rumburska 89, 277 21 Libechov, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Anger
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; D053145:Cell Nucleus Size; D048429:Cell Size; D003593:Cytoplasm / Q000378:metabolism*; D008677:Metaphase; D051379:Mice; D008813:Mice, Inbred ICR; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D010312:Parthenogenesis; D008941:Spindle Apparatus / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; C572046:TPX2 protein, mouse