The distribution of active force generators controls mitotic spindle position

Science

Volumn 301, Issue 5632, 2003, Pages 518-521

  Grill, Stephan W ^a,b   Howard, Jonathon ^a   Schäffer, Erik ^a   Stelzer, Ernst H K ^b   Hyman, Anthony A ^a  

^a MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE OF MOLECULAR CELL BIOLOGY AND GENETICS   (Germany)

^b EUROPEAN MOLECULAR BIOLOGY LABORATORY   (Germany)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

BIOCHEMISTRY; LASERS; PROTEINS; ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION;

CELL DIVISIONS;

CELLS;

GUANINE NUCLEOTIDE BINDING PROTEIN; PROTEIN SUBUNIT;

MICROBIOLOGY;

ARTICLE; CAENORHABDITIS ELEGANS; CELL DIVISION; CENTROSOME; LASER; MICROTUBULE; MITOSIS SPINDLE; NONHUMAN; PRIORITY JOURNAL; ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION;

ANAPHASE; ANIMALS; CAENORHABDITIS ELEGANS; CELL DIVISION; CENTROSOME; EMBRYO, NONMAMMALIAN; FLUORESCENT ANTIBODY TECHNIQUE, INDIRECT; HETEROTRIMERIC GTP-BINDING PROTEINS; LASERS; MATHEMATICS; MICROTUBULES; MITOSIS; MITOTIC SPINDLE APPARATUS; MODELS, BIOLOGICAL; RNA INTERFERENCE;

ASTER; CAENORHABDITIS; CAENORHABDITIS ELEGANS;

EID: 0042845879     PISSN: 00368075     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1126/science.1086560     Document Type: Article

References (31)

1. H. R. Horvitz, I. Herskowitz, Cell 68, 237 (1992).
2. R. Rappaport, Int. Rev. Cytol. 31, 169 (1971).
3. K. J. Kemphues, S. Strome, in C. elegans II, D. L. Riddle, T. Blumenthal, B. J. Meyer, J. R. Priess, Eds. (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, 1997), pp. 335-359.
4. R. Lyczak, J. E. Gomes, B. Bowerman, Dev. Cell 3, 157 (2002).
5. J. Pellettieri, G. Seydoux, Science 298, 1946 (2002).
6. A. F. Severson, D. L. Baillie, B. Bowerman, Curr. Biol. 12, 2066 (2002).
7. D. Albertson, Dev. Biol. 101, 61 (1984).
8. S. W. Grill, P. Gönczy, E. H. K. Stelzer, A. A. Hyman, Nature 409, 630 (2001).
9. D. J. Sharp, G. C. Rogers, J. M. Scholey, Nature 407, 41 (2000).
10. P. Gönczy, Trends Cell Biol. 12, 332 (2002).
11. T. J. Mitchison, E. D. Salmon, Nature Cell Biol. 3, E17 (2001).
12. S. C. Schuyler, D. Pellman, J. Cell Sci. 114, 247 (2001).
13. J. Howard, A. A. Hyman, Nature 422, 753 (2003).
14. See supporting data on Science Online.
15. M. F. Tsou, W. Ku, A. Hayashi, L. S. Rose, J. Cell Biol. 160, 845 (2003).
16. F. J. Sigworth, Nature 270, 265 (1977).
17. F. J. Sigworth, J. Physiol. (London) 307, 97 (1980).
18. D. Schmidt, S. Strome, unpublished data.
19. D. L. Dujardin, R. B. Vallee, Curr. Opin. Cell Biol. 14, 44 (2002).
20. In the velocity-limited regime; a fragment moves at the maximum velocity whenever there are one or more force generators active. The more force generators per fragment, the higher the mean speed, because the probability of having at least one active force generator is increased. However, this model results in a mean-variance relationship identical to the force-limited case presented, with N = 1. This is not consistent with our results. 21. With fewer than 12 aster fragments generated per spindle pole and one or two active force generators per fragment, we expect fewer than 50 active force generators throughout the embryo at any time during anaphase.
21. M. Gotta, J. Ahringer, Nature Cell Biol. 3, 297 (2001).
22. Y. Cai, F. Yu, S. Lin, W. Chia, X. Yang, Cell 112, 51 (2003).
23. P. Gönczy et al., Nature 408, 331 (2000).
24. K. Colombo et al., Science 300, 1957 (2003); published online 15 May 2003 (10.1126/ science. 1084146).
25. M. Gotta, Y. Dong, Y. K. Peterson, S. M. Lanier, J. Ahringer, Curr. Biol. 13, 1029 (2003).
26. D. G. Srinivasan, R. M. Fisk, H. Xu, S. Van Den Heuvel, Genes Dev. 17, 1225 (2003).
27. E. Hannak et al., J. Cell Biol. 157, 591 (2002).
28. Because the laser was focused at regions where the pericentriolar material and γ-tubulin are localized, we expect a fraction of the centrosomal γ-tubulin to be destroyed. Consequently, not all aster fragments contained detectable levels of γ-tubulin.
29. L. Sachs, Applied Statistics: A Handbook of Techniques (Springer, New York, 1984).
30. Stray light from the pulsed ultraviolet (UV) laser used for OICD bleached the surrounding GFP-α-tubulin. Therefore, UV laser power was reduced by about 70% to visualize fragment movement by GFP. With less laser power, we probably produced larger fragments with an increased drag coefficient. Thus, elementary speeds were smaller in the GFP assay than in the DIC assay. On the other hand, larger fragments have more force generators associated, consistent with the general increase in N for the GFP assay.
31. We thank C. Cowan, A. Desai, M. Diehl, P. Gönczy, M. Glotzer, E. Hannak, F. Jülicher, K. Oegema, L. Pelletier, A. Riedinger, G. Ritter, E. Sackmann, N. Salmon, M. Srayko, and E. Tanaka for useful discussions, experimental assistance, and helpful comments. Supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft grant SPP 1111 (HY3/2-1).