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Review
. 2011 Jul;248(3):439-46.
doi: 10.1007/s00709-010-0205-x. Epub 2010 Sep 10.

Variations on theme: spindle assembly in diverse cells

Patricia Wadsworth  1 , Wei-Lih Lee, Takashi Murata, Tobias I Baskin
Affiliations
Review

Variations on theme: spindle assembly in diverse cells

Patricia Wadsworth et al. Protoplasma. 2011 Jul.

Abstract

The mitotic spindle faithfully separates the genetic material, and has been reverently observed for well over a century. Across eukaryotes, while the mechanisms for moving chromosomes seem quite conserved, mechanisms for assembling the spindle often seem distinct. Two major pathways for spindle assembly are known, one based on centrosomes and the other based on chromatin, and these pathways are usually considered to be fundamentally different. We review observations of spindle assembly in animals, fungi, and plants, and argue that microtubule assembly at a particular location, centrosomes, or chromatin, reflects contingent, cell-type specific factors, rather than reflecting a fundamental distinction in the process of spindle building. We hypothesize that the essential process for spindle assembly is the motor-driven organization of microtubules that accumulate in the form of dense bundles at or near the chromosomes.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Spindle assembly in animal, plant, and yeast cells. a Mammalian epithelial cells (LLC-Pk1) expressing GFP tubulin; note the extensive astral array. b Tobacco cells (BY-2) expressing GFP tubulin. Cells in a and b were imaged using spinning disc confocal microscopy. c Budding yeast cells expressing mCherry-tubulin were imaged using conventional wide-field fluorescence microscopy; note nuclear and astral microtubules are separated by the nuclear envelope. Bars=10 μm
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Schematic depiction of the contribution of astral and chromosome-associated microtubules to spindle formation. Only one centrosome of a spindle is shown for clarity. Astral microtubules (gray) mediate interactions with the cell cortex for spindle positioning (a) and cytokinesis (b); interact with kinetochores (c); with peripheral microtubules (d) and with microtubules from the opposite centrosome (e). Chromosome-associated microtubules (red) form dense arrays; molecular motors (orange) and microtubule-associated proteins (green) mediate the motion and bundling of these microtubules. Arrowheads depict microtubule plus-ends
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Comment in

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