JCB logo
amgmicro.com
  Home | Help | Feedback | Subscriptions | Archive | Search | Table of Contents
Published 10 November 2003. doi:10.1083/jcb.200304035
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF, 734K)
Right arrow PPT slides of all figures
Right arrow Supplemental Material Index
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new content in the JCB
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by O'Toole, E. T.
Right arrow Articles by Müller-Reichert, T.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by O'Toole, E. T.
Right arrow Articles by Müller-Reichert, T.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Facebook   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

© The Rockefeller University Press, 0021-9525/2003/11/451 $8.00
The Journal of Cell Biology, Volume 163, Number 3, 451-456

Report

Morphologically distinct microtubule ends in the mitotic centrosome of Caenorhabditis elegans



Eileen T. O'Toole1, Kent L. McDonald2, Jana Mäntler3, J. Richard McIntosh1, Anthony A. Hyman3 and Thomas Müller-Reichert3

1 Boulder Laboratory for 3-D Electron Microscopy of Cells, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309
2 Electron Microscope Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
3 Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, D-01307 Dresden, Germany

Address correspondence to T. Müller-Reichert, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Pfotenhauerstr. 108, D-01307 Dresden, Germany. Tel.: 49-351-210-1763. Fax: 49-351-210-2000. email: mueller-reichert{at}mpi-cbg.de

During mitosis, the connections of microtubules (MTs) to centrosomes and kinetochores are dynamic. From in vitro studies, it is known that the dynamic behavior of MTs is related to the structure of their ends, but we know little about the structure of MT ends in spindles. Here, we use high-voltage electron tomography to study the centrosome- and kinetochore-associated ends of spindle MTs in embryonic cells of the nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans. Centrosome-associated MT ends are either closed or open. Closed MT ends are more numerous and are uniformly distributed around the centrosome, but open ends are found preferentially on kinetochore-attached MTs. These results have structural implications for models of MT interactions with centrosomes.

Key Words: Caenorhabditis elegans; centrosome; electron tomography; mitosis; 3-D reconstruction

The online version of this article includes supplemental material.

Abbreviations used in this paper: 3-D, three-dimensional; KMT, kinetochore MT; MT, microtubule; PCM, pericentriolar material.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Facebook Facebook   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:



  Home | Help | Feedback | Subscriptions | Archive | Search | Table of Contents