Dynein/dynactin regulate metaphase spindle length by targeting depolymerizing activities to spindle poles

During cell division metaphase spindles maintain constant length, whereas spindle microtubules continuously flux polewards, requiring addition of tubulin subunits at microtubule plus-ends, polewards translocation of the microtubule lattice, and removal of tubulin subunits from microtubule minus-ends near spindle poles. How these processes are coordinated is unknown. Here, we show that dynein/dynactin, a multi-subunit microtubule minus-end–directed motor complex, and NuMA, a microtubule cross-linker, regulate spindle length. Fluorescent speckle microscopy reveals that dynactin or NuMA inhibition suppresses microtubule disassembly at spindle poles without affecting polewards microtubule sliding. The observed uncoupling of these two components of flux indicates that microtubule depolymerization is not required for the microtubule transport associated with polewards flux. Inhibition of Kif2a, a KinI kinesin known to depolymerize microtubules in vitro, results in increased spindle microtubule length. We find that dynein/dynactin contribute to the targeting of Kif2a to spindle poles, suggesting a model in which dynein/dynactin regulate spindle length and coordinate flux by maintaining microtubule depolymerizing activities at spindle poles.

• Publication year

  2004

• Venue

  Journal of Cell Biology

• Publication date

  2004-08-16

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1083/jcb.200404015PMID 15314063PMCID 1401226
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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