scholarly journals Loss of KLP-19 polar ejection force causes misorientation and missegregation of holocentric chromosomes

2004 ◽  
Vol 166 (7) ◽  
pp. 991-1001 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Powers ◽  
Debra J. Rose ◽  
Adam Saunders ◽  
Steven Dunkelbarger ◽  
Susan Strome ◽  
...  

Holocentric chromosomes assemble kinetochores along their length instead of at a focused spot. The elongated expanse of an individual holocentric kinetochore and its potential flexibility heighten the risk of stable attachment to microtubules from both poles of the mitotic spindle (merotelic attachment), and hence aberrant segregation of chromosomes. Little is known about the mechanisms that holocentric species have evolved to avoid this type of error. Our studies of the influence of KLP-19, an essential microtubule motor, on the behavior of holocentric Caenorhabditis elegans chromosomes suggest that it has a major role in combating merotelic attachments. Depletion of KLP-19, which associates with nonkinetochore chromatin, allows aberrant poleward chromosome motion during prometaphase, misalignment of holocentric kinetochores, and multiple anaphase chromosome bridges in all mitotic divisions. Time-lapse movies of GFP-labeled mono- and bipolar spindles demonstrate that KLP-19 generates a force on relatively stiff holocentric chromosomes that pushes them away from poles. We hypothesize that this polar ejection force minimizes merotelic misattachment by maintaining a constant tension on pole–kinetochore connections throughout prometaphase, tension that compels sister kinetochores to face directly toward opposite poles.

2007 ◽  
Vol 18 (9) ◽  
pp. 3601-3606 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abiola Oladipo ◽  
Ann Cowan ◽  
Vladimir Rodionov

The mitotic spindle is a microtubule (MT)-based molecular machine that serves for equal segregation of chromosomes during cell division. The formation of the mitotic spindle requires the activity of MT motors, including members of the kinesin-14 family. Although evidence suggests that kinesins-14 act by driving the sliding of MT bundles in different areas of the spindle, such sliding activity had never been demonstrated directly. To test the hypothesis that kinesins-14 can induce MT sliding in living cells, we developed an in vivo assay, which involves overexpression of the kinesin-14 family member Drosophila Ncd in interphase mammalian fibroblasts. We found that green fluorescent protein (GFP)–Ncd colocalized with cytoplasmic MTs, whose distribution was determined by microinjection of Cy3 tubulin into GFP-transfected cells. Ncd overexpression resulted in the formation of MT bundles that exhibited dynamic “looping” behavior never observed in control cells. Photobleaching studies and fluorescence speckle microscopy analysis demonstrated that neighboring MTs in bundles could slide against each other with velocities of 0.1 μm/s, corresponding to the velocities of movement of the recombinant Ncd in in vitro motility assays. Our data, for the first time, demonstrate generation of sliding forces between adjacent MTs by Ncd, and they confirm the proposed roles of kinesins-14 in the mitotic spindle morphogenesis.


mSphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Irsa Shoukat ◽  
Corey Frazer ◽  
John S. Allingham

ABSTRACT Mitotic spindles assume a bipolar architecture through the concerted actions of microtubules, motors, and cross-linking proteins. In most eukaryotes, kinesin-5 motors are essential to this process, and cells will fail to form a bipolar spindle without kinesin-5 activity. Remarkably, inactivation of kinesin-14 motors can rescue this kinesin-5 deficiency by reestablishing the balance of antagonistic forces needed to drive spindle pole separation and spindle assembly. We show that the yeast form of the opportunistic fungus Candida albicans assembles bipolar spindles in the absence of its sole kinesin-5, CaKip1, even though this motor exhibits stereotypical cell-cycle-dependent localization patterns within the mitotic spindle. However, cells lacking CaKip1 function have shorter metaphase spindles and longer and more numerous astral microtubules. They also show defective hyphal development. Interestingly, a small population of CaKip1-deficient spindles break apart and reform two bipolar spindles in a single nucleus. These spindles then separate, dividing the nucleus, and then elongate simultaneously in the mother and bud or across the bud neck, resulting in multinucleate cells. These data suggest that kinesin-5-independent mechanisms drive assembly and elongation of the mitotic spindle in C. albicans and that CaKip1 is important for bipolar spindle integrity. We also found that simultaneous loss of kinesin-5 and kinesin-14 (CaKar3Cik1) activity is lethal. This implies a divergence from the antagonistic force paradigm that has been ascribed to these motors, which could be linked to the high mitotic error rate that C. albicans experiences and often exploits as a generator of diversity. IMPORTANCE Candida albicans is one of the most prevalent fungal pathogens of humans and can infect a broad range of niches within its host. This organism frequently acquires resistance to antifungal agents through rapid generation of genetic diversity, with aneuploidy serving as a particularly important adaptive mechanism. This paper describes an investigation of the sole kinesin-5 in C. albicans, which is a major regulator of chromosome segregation. Contrary to other eukaryotes studied thus far, C. albicans does not require kinesin-5 function for bipolar spindle assembly or spindle elongation. Rather, this motor protein associates with the spindle throughout mitosis to maintain spindle integrity. Furthermore, kinesin-5 loss is synthetically lethal with loss of kinesin-14—canonically an opposing force producer to kinesin-5 in spindle assembly and anaphase. These results suggest a significant evolutionary rewiring of microtubule motor functions in the C. albicans mitotic spindle, which may have implications in the genetic instability of this pathogen.


1997 ◽  
Vol 139 (6) ◽  
pp. 1361-1371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel Molina ◽  
Sigrid Baars ◽  
Julie A. Brill ◽  
Karen G. Hales ◽  
Margaret T. Fuller ◽  
...  

The tiovivo (tio) gene of Drosophila encodes a kinesin-related protein, KLP38B, that colocalizes with condensed chromatin during cell division. Wild-type function of the tio gene product KLP38B is required for normal chromosome segregation during mitosis. Mitotic cells in tio larval brains displayed circular mitotic figures, increased ploidy, and abnormal anaphase figures. KLP38B mRNA is maternally provided and expressed in cells about to undergo division. We propose that KLP38B, perhaps redundantly with other chromosome-associated microtubule motor proteins, contributes to interactions between chromosome arms and microtubules important for establishing bipolar attachment of chromosomes and assembly of stable bipolar spindles.


2018 ◽  
Vol 475 (5) ◽  
pp. 981-1002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jie Li ◽  
Hiroki Shima ◽  
Hironari Nishizawa ◽  
Masatoshi Ikeda ◽  
Andrey Brydun ◽  
...  

The transcription repressor BACH1 performs mutually independent dual roles in transcription regulation and chromosome alignment during mitosis by supporting polar ejection force of mitotic spindle. We now found that the mitotic spindles became oblique relative to the adhesion surface following endogenous BACH1 depletion in HeLa cells. This spindle orientation rearrangement was rescued by re-expression of BACH1 depending on its interactions with HMMR and CRM1, both of which are required for the positioning of mitotic spindle, but independently of its DNA-binding activity. A mass spectrometry analysis of BACH1 complexes in interphase and M phase revealed that BACH1 lost during mitosis interactions with proteins involved in chromatin and gene expression but retained interactions with HMMR and its known partners including CHICA. By analyzing BACH1 modification using stable isotope labeling with amino acids in cell culture, mitosis-specific phosphorylations of BACH1 were observed, and mutations of these residues abolished the activity of BACH1 to restore mitotic spindle orientation in knockdown cells and to interact with HMMR. Detailed histological analysis of Bach1-deficient mice revealed lengthening of the epithelial fold structures of the intestine. These observations suggest that BACH1 performs stabilization of mitotic spindle orientation together with HMMR and CRM1 in mitosis, and that the cell cycle-specific phosphorylation switches the transcriptional and mitotic functions of BACH1.


1994 ◽  
Vol 107 (9) ◽  
pp. 2643-2651
Author(s):  
T.P. Spurck ◽  
J.D. Pickett-Heaps

The effects of diazepam (DZP) on mitosis and the microtubule (MT) cytoskeleton in the live diatoms Hantzschia amphioxys and Surirella robusta were followed using time-lapse video microscopy. Similarly treated cells were fixed and later examined for immunoflouresence staining of MTs or for transmission electron microscopy. DZP treatment (250 microM) had no effect on interphase cells but affected mitosis, resulting in the majority of prometaphase and metaphase chromosomes releasing from one or both spindle poles and collecting irregularly along the central spindle. Chromosomes remaining attached to one pole continued to display slight prometaphase oscillations; however, this activity was never observed in metaphase spindles. Following removal of DZP, some chromosomes still bipolarly attached, immediately released elastically from one pole. Within the first 2 minutes of recovery, all chromosomes recommenced spindle attachment, exhibiting normal prometaphase oscillations and proceeded through mitosis. DZP treatment during anaphase had no detectable effect on chromosome motion or cell cleavage. These results suggest that DZP acts as an anti-MT agent, selectively affecting polar MTs at prophase, prometaphase and metaphase, and thereby weakening kinetochore connection to the poles. From these and other results (unpublished), its mode of action is different to that of most anti-MT agents.


1969 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 745-755
Author(s):  
W. T. JACKSON

Earlier studies on the effects of the herbicide isopropyl N-phenylcarbamate (IPC) on mitosis revealed blocked metaphases, multinucleate cells, giant nuclei and an increase in number of partly contracted chromosomes. It was assumed that IPC, like colchicine, was causing these effects by disruption of the spindle apparatus by destroying the spindle microtubules. The animal hormone melatonin causes an increase in birefringence of the mitotic spindle in animal cells, presumably by increasing the number of microtubules. We have studied the effects of IPC, melatonin, and combinations of the two on mitosis in dividing endosperm cells of the African blood lily (Haemanthus katherinae Baker) in vivo by phase-contrast and polarization microscopy. Both qualitative and quantitative data are presented. Interpretation of these results has been aided materially by a time-lapse cinemicrographic analysis of dividing cells subjected to 1 and 10 p.p.m. IPC (unpublished) and by an accompanying fine-structural analysis of untreated and IPC-treated cells. Mitosis was disrupted by 0.01-10 p.p.m. IPC, the severity of the effect depending on both concentration and stage of mitosis of the cell at the time of treatment. Concentrations of IPC that caused cessation of chromosome movement also caused loss of birefringence of the mitotic spindle. Melatonin increased birefringence of the mitotic spindle in these plant cells and partly nullified the adverse effects of IPC. The results of this study demonstrate that the herbicide IPC, under our conditions, causes disruption of mitosis and loss of birefringence of the spindle. And it has been established that an animal hormone is capable of increasing the birefringence, and presumably the number of microtubules, of the mitotic spindle in dividing endosperm cells of a higher plant. Although melatonin is capable of partly nullifying the effects of IPC, a competitive antagonism is not postulated.


2003 ◽  
Vol 161 (6) ◽  
pp. 1021-1028 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melinda M. Horne ◽  
Thomas M. Guadagno

Circumstantial evidence has suggested the possibility of microtubule-associated protein (MAP) kinase's involvement in spindle regulation. To test this directly, we asked whether MAP kinase was required for spindle assembly in Xenopus egg extracts. Either the inhibition or the depletion of endogenous p42 MAP kinase resulted in defective spindle structures resembling asters or half-spindles. Likewise, an increase in the length and polymerization of microtubules was measured in aster assays suggesting a role for MAP kinase in regulating microtubule dynamics. Consistent with this, treatment of extracts with either a specific MAP kinase kinase inhibitor or a MAP kinase phosphatase resulted in the rapid disassembly of bipolar spindles into large asters. Finally, we report that mitotic progression in the absence of MAP kinase signaling led to multiple spindle abnormalities in NIH 3T3 cells. We therefore propose that MAP kinase is a key regulator of the mitotic spindle.


2002 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1366-1380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominic Hoepfner ◽  
Florian Schaerer ◽  
Arndt Brachat ◽  
Achim Wach ◽  
Peter Philippsen

Nuclear migration and positioning in Saccharomyces cerevisiae depend on long astral microtubules emanating from the spindle pole bodies (SPBs). Herein, we show by in vivo fluorescence microscopy that cells lacking Spc72, the SPB receptor of the cytoplasmic γ-tubulin complex, can only generate very short (<1 μm) and unstable astral microtubules. Consequently, nuclear migration to the bud neck and orientation of the anaphase spindle along the mother-bud axis are absent in these cells. However,SPC72 deletion is not lethal because elongated but misaligned spindles can frequently reorient in mother cells, permitting delayed but otherwise correct nuclear segregation. High-resolution time-lapse sequences revealed that this spindle reorientation was most likely accomplished by cortex interactions of the very short astral microtubules. In addition, a set of double mutants suggested that reorientation was dependent on the SPB outer plaque and the astral microtubule motor function of Kar3 but not Kip2/Kip3/Dhc1, or the cortex components Kar9/Num1. Our observations suggest that Spc72 is required for astral microtubule formation at the SPB half-bridge and for stabilization of astral microtubules at the SPB outer plaque. In addition, our data exclude involvement of Spc72 in spindle formation and elongation functions.


2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (13) ◽  
pp. 2051-2060 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Sophia Gayek ◽  
Ryoma Ohi

The mitotic spindle is a bipolar, microtubule (MT)-based cellular machine that segregates the duplicated genome into two daughter cells. The kinesin-5 Eg5 establishes the bipolar geometry of the mitotic spindle, but previous work in mammalian cells suggested that this motor is unimportant for the maintenance of spindle bipolarity. Although it is known that Kif15, a second mitotic kinesin, enforces spindle bipolarity in the absence of Eg5, how Kif15 functions in this capacity and/or whether other biochemical or physical properties of the spindle promote its bipolarity have been poorly studied. Here we report that not all human cell lines can efficiently maintain bipolarity without Eg5, despite their expressing Kif15. We show that the stability of chromosome-attached kinetochore-MTs (K-MTs) is important for bipolar spindle maintenance without Eg5. Cells that efficiently maintain bipolar spindles without Eg5 have more stable K-MTs than those that collapse without Eg5. Consistent with this observation, artificial destabilization of K-MTs promotes spindle collapse without Eg5, whereas stabilizing K-MTs improves bipolar spindle maintenance without Eg5. Our findings suggest that either rapid K-MT turnover pulls poles inward or slow K-MT turnover allows for greater resistance to inward-directed forces.


2001 ◽  
Vol 154 (6) ◽  
pp. 1135-1146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aime A. Levesque ◽  
Duane A. Compton

Chromokinesins have been postulated to provide the polar ejection force needed for chromosome congression during mitosis. We have evaluated that possibility by monitoring chromosome movement in vertebrate-cultured cells using time-lapse differential interference contrast microscopy after microinjection with antibodies specific for the chromokinesin Kid. 17.5% of cells injected with Kid-specific antibodies have one or more chromosomes that remain closely opposed to a spindle pole and fail to enter anaphase. In contrast, 82.5% of injected cells align chromosomes in metaphase, progress to anaphase, and display chromosome velocities not significantly different from control cells. However, injected cells lack chromosome oscillations, and chromosome orientation is atypical because chromosome arms extend toward spindle poles during both congression and metaphase. Furthermore, chromosomes cluster into a mass and fail to oscillate when Kid is perturbed in cells containing monopolar spindles. These data indicate that Kid generates the polar ejection force that pushes chromosome arms away from spindle poles in vertebrate-cultured cells. This force increases the efficiency with which chromosomes make bipolar spindle attachments and regulates kinetochore activities necessary for chromosome oscillation, but is not essential for chromosome congression.


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