title: Mechanisms of Mitotic Spindle Assembly.
abstract: Life depends on cell proliferation and the accurate segregation of chromosomes, which are mediated by the microtubule (MT)-based mitotic spindle and ∼200 essential MT-associated proteins. Yet, a mechanistic understanding of how the mitotic spindle is assembled and achieves chromosome segregation is still missing. This is mostly due to the density of MTs in the spindle, which presumably precludes their direct observation. Recent insight has been gained into the molecular building plan of the metaphase spindle using bulk and single-molecule measurements combined with computational modeling. MT nucleation was uncovered as a key principle of spindle assembly, and mechanistic details about MT nucleation pathways and their coordination are starting to be revealed. Lastly, advances in studying spindle assembly can be applied to address the molecular mechanisms of how the spindle segregates chromosomes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544-1014; email: spetry@princeton.edu.
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Petry
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018385:Centrosome / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D020090:Chromosome Segregation; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D016547:Kinesins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D018386:Kinetochores / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008677:Metaphase; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D008870:Microtubules / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D015398:Signal Transduction; D008941:Spindle Apparatus / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D014404:Tubulin / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D029867:Xenopus Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D014982:Xenopus laevis / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D015053:Zygote / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: C486738:CKAP5 protein, Xenopus; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins; D014404:Tubulin; D029867:Xenopus Proteins; C522444:KIF2 protein, Xenopus; D016547:Kinesins
keywords: cell division; cytoskeleton; microtubule; microtubule nucleation; microtubule-associated protein; γ-tubulin ring complex