What is it about?
When cells divide during mitosis, the orientation of the division is usually clearly specified. The mitotic spindle acts as the steering wheel for cell division. The orientation of the mitotic spindle thus determines the orientation of cell division. By filming cells as they divide, we show that the mitotic spindle carries this out in two discrete phases - rotation, then maintenance - both of which have distinct mechanisms.
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Why is it important?
This study was the first time where spatially and temporally defined mitotic spindle movement was identified and studied in human cells. Using an automated spindle pole tracking software helped us to extract statistically significant patterns of spindle movement, and therefore we were able to overcome the cell-to-cell variability inherent in spindle movements.
Perspectives
This was a tangent from my PhD work, where we used the same software to study the fate of the mitotic spindle after depletion of various proteins known to control orientation of cell division in other model systems. The use of the Spindle3D software allows us to study hundreds of mitotic cells in a fraction of the time. This platform can be extended to future high-thoroughput studies of spindle orientation pathways in cultured human cells.
Dr Ihsan Nazurah Zulkipli
Universiti Brunei Darussalam
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Automated tracking of mitotic spindle pole positions shows that LGN is required for spindle rotation but not orientation maintenance, Cell Cycle, August 2013, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.4161/cc.25671.
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