Cells assemble mitotic spindles during each round of division to insure accurate segregation of their duplicated genome. In animal cells, stereotypical spindles have two poles, each containing one centrosome, from which microtubules are nucleated. In contrast, many cancer cells often contain more than two centrosomes and form transient multipolar spindle structures with more than two poles. In order to divide and produce viable progeny, the multipolar spindle intermediate must be reshaped into a pseudo-bipolar structure via a process called centrosomal clustering. Pseudo-bipolar spindles appear to function normally during mitosis, but they occasionally give rise to aneuploid and transformed daughter cells. Agents that inhibit centrosomal clustering might therefore work as a potential cancer therapy, specifically targeting mitosis in supernumerary centrosome-containing cells.
Highlights d Cyclin B alone is insufficient to induce a spindle-assemblycompetent M phase d Addition of Arpp19 with low Cyclin B levels rescues spindle bipolarity d Addition of Xkid rescues remaining spindle length and chromosome alignment defects d This three-part cocktail is sufficient to induce normal spindle assembly in extracts
Protein release from microfluidically-confined photodegradable hydrogels allows dynamic cycling of cell-free Xenopus egg extracts, a widely used and biochemically tractable model system.
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