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© The Rockefeller University Press, 0021-9525/2002/9/990 $5.00
The Journal of Cell Biology, Volume 158, Number 6, September 16, 2002 990-990

Microtubules get swept up in the excitement of mitosis

Micortubules are pulled inward (left to right) in early mitosis.

Microtubules (MTs) undergo a dramatic suctioning at the onset of mitosis, according to a report by Rusan et al. on page 997. The process places MTs in the vicinity of the growing mitotic spindle and may prevent nonspindle MTs from interfering with chromosome segregation.

Visualizing mitotic MT rearrangement has not been easy, because the process is so rapid. The new confocal videos of living cells expressing GFP-tubulin catch prophase in a way that imaging of fixed or microinjected cells never did. Rearrangement began in prophase with the depolymerization of cytosolic MTs and the formation of bundles and foci. Bundles were then pulled along other MTs extending from the centrosome. They continued to disassemble along the way, and eventually appeared to join with the forming spindle. A video of the entire process (which was completed within several minutes) is available at http://www.jcb.org/cgi/content/full/jcb.200204109/DC1/1. Astral MTs continued to scan the cytoplasm even as late as metaphase, drawing in errant MTs.

Dynein may regulate the timing of MT influx. Pulling was dependent on cytoplasmic dynein activity, indicating that MTs are both a track and cargo for this motor. Previously, nuclear envelope–associated dynein was shown to tear the envelope by pulling outward along microtubules. Possibly, the switch from dynein's interphase vesicular cargo to its mitotic cargoes are coordinately regulated, although the relevant signals to dynein are not yet known.

Nicole LeBrasseur

lebrasn{at}rockefeller.edu

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Reorganization of the microtubule array in prophase/prometaphase requires cytoplasmic dynein-dependent microtubule transport

Nasser M. Rusan, U. Serdar Tulu, Carey Fagerstrom, and Patricia Wadsworth
J. Cell Biol. 2002 158: 997-1003. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This Article Full Text (PDF, 269K) PPT slides of all figures Alert me when this article is cited Services Email this article Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new content in the JCB Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by LeBrasseur, N. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by LeBrasseur, N. Related Collections Related Article Social Bookmarking                            What's this?