Click here to close Hello! We notice that you are using Internet Explorer, which is not supported by Xenbase and may cause the site to display incorrectly. We suggest using a current version of Chrome, FireFox, or Safari.
XB-ART-17934
Nature 1996 Aug 01;3826590:420-5. doi: 10.1038/382420a0.
Show Gene links Show Anatomy links

Self-organization of microtubules into bipolar spindles around artificial chromosomes in Xenopus egg extracts.

Heald R , Tournebize R , Blank T , Sandaltzopoulos R , Becker P , Hyman A , Karsenti E .


Abstract
Functional nuclei and mitotic spindles are shown to assemble around DNA-coated beads incubated in Xenopus egg extracts. Bipolar spindles assemble in the absence of centrosomes and kinetochores, indicating that bipolarity is an intrinsic property of microtubules assembling around chromatin in a mitotic cytoplasm. Microtubules nucleated at dispersed sites with random polarity rearrange into two arrays of uniform polarity. Spindle-pole formation requires cytoplasmic dynein-dependent translocation of microtubules across one another. It is proposed that spindles form in the absence of centrosomes by motor-dependent sorting of microtubules according to their polarity.

PubMed ID: 8684481
Article link: Nature


Species referenced: Xenopus
Genes referenced: dnai1 dync1li1

References :
Hyams, Look ma, no chromosomes! 1996, Pubmed