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.


???displayArticle.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.

???displayArticle.pubmedLink??? 8684481
???displayArticle.link??? Nature


Species referenced: Xenopus
Genes referenced: dnai1

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