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Published online 24 March 2003. doi:10.1083/jcb.200211029
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© The Rockefeller University Press, 0021-9525/2003/3/993 $5.00
The Journal of Cell Biology, Volume 160, Number 7, 993-999

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Spindle assembly and cytokinesis in the absence of chromosomes during Drosophila male meiosis



Elisabetta Bucciarelli1, Maria Grazia Giansanti1,2, Silvia Bonaccorsi1,2 and Maurizio Gatti1,2

1 Istituto Pasteur Fondazione Cenci Bolognetti, Dipartimento di Genetica e Biologia Molecolare, Università di Roma "La Sapienza," 00185 Rome, Italy
2 Istituto di Biologia e Patologia Molecolari del CNR, Dipartimento di Genetica e Biologia Molecolare, Università di Roma "La Sapienza," 00185 Rome, Italy

Address correspondence to Maurizio Gatti, Dipartimento di Genetica e Biologia Molecolare, Università di Roma "La Sapienza," Piazzale A. Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy. Tel.: 39-0649912843. Fax: 39-064456866. E-mail: maurizio.gatti{at}uniroma1.it

Alarge body of work indicates that chromosomes play a key role in the assembly of both acentrosomal and centrosome-containing spindles. In animal systems, the absence of chromosomes either prevents spindle formation or allows the assembly of a metaphase-like spindle that fails to evolve into an ana-telophase spindle. Here, we show that Drosophila secondary spermatocytes can assemble morphologically normal spindles in the absence of chromosomes. The Drosophila mutants fusolo and solofuso are severely defective in chromosome segregation and produce secondary spermatocytes that are devoid of chromosomes. The centrosomes of these anucleated cells form robust asters that give rise to bipolar spindles that undergo the same ana-telophase morphological transformations that characterize normal spindles. The cells containing chromosome-free spindles are also able to assemble regular cytokinetic structures and cleave normally. In addition, chromosome-free spindles normally accumulate the Aurora B kinase at their midzones. This suggests that the association of Aurora B with chromosomes is not a prerequisite for its accumulation at the central spindle, or for its function during cytokinesis.

Key Words: chromosome segregation; chromosome passengers; Aura B; centrosome; microtubule

E. Bucciarelli and M.G. Giansanti contributed equally to this paper.

* Abbreviations used in this paper: fsl, fusolo; MT, microtubule; Pav, Pavarotti; suo, solofuso.


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