Faithful chromosome segregation, during meiosis, is of critical importance to prevent aneuploidy in the resulting embryo. In mammalian oocytes, the segregation of homologous chromosomes takes place with the spindle located at the cell's periphery. The spindle is often assembled close to the centre of the cell, which necessitates the actin network for spindle transport to the cell cortex. In thi...

Early development of many animals is characterized by rapid cleavages that dramatically decrease cell size, but how the mitotic spindle adapts to changing cell dimensions is not understood. To identify mechanisms that scale the spindle during Xenopus laevis embryogenesis, we established an in vitro system using cytoplasmic extracts prepared from embryos that recapitulates in vivo spindle size d...

Mitotic spindle orientation is crucial for symmetric vs asymmetric cell division and depends on astral microtubules. Here, we show that distinct subpopulations of astral microtubules exist, which have differential functions in regulating spindle orientation and division symmetry. Specifically, in polarized stem cells of developing mouse neocortex, astral microtubules reaching the apical and bas...

Analysis of benign and malignant mouse skin tumors had previouslyshown that amplification of a mutant H-ras alÃ-eleor loss of the normal alÃ-elewas generally seen only in high grade or spindle cell tumors. The normal:mutant ras gene dosage has been studied directly by polymerase chain reaction amplification of DNA derived from paraffin sections of carcinomas of defined histolÃ3gica!types. Some ...

Spindle alignment is the process in which the two spindle poles are directed toward preselected and opposite cell ends. In budding yeast, the APC-related molecule Kar9 is required for proper alignment of the spindle with the mother-bud axis. We find that Kar9 localizes to the prospective daughter cell spindle pole. Kar9 is transferred from the pole to cytoplasmic microtubules, which are then gu...

Proper assembly of the spindle apparatus is crucially important for faithful chromosome segregation during anaphase. Thanks to the effort over the last decades, we have very detailed information about many events leading to spindle assembly and chromosome segregation, however we still do not understand certain aspects, including, for example, spindle length control. When tight regulation of spi...

The mitotic spindle checkpoint represents a signal transduction pathway that prevents the onset of anaphase until all chromosomes are properly aligned on a metaphase plate. Partial inactivation of this checkpoint allows premature separation of sister chromatids and results in aneuploidy, which might contribute to tumorigenesis. Unlike other cell cycle checkpoints, the spindle checkpoint is esse...

Cortical cell polarity controls mitotic spindle orientation in many cell types. In this issue of Cell, it is turned around and shown that the transfer of polarity information between the cortex and the spindle is not just one way. In Drosophila neuroblasts, the spindle also has polarizing activity on the cortex.

A seronegative middle-aged Saudi man with history of Kaposi sarcoma, presents a recurrent dusky brown nodular lesion on the thigh. Histopathologic examination showed spindle cell intervening slit-like vascular spaces that are immunoreactive to HHV-8.

the suppression of the regenerative chatter phenomenon in turning process via the variation of the frequency and amplitude of the spindle motor excitation is carried out in this research. a programmable inverter is employed for variable periodic excitation of the spindle motor. a set of turning experiments is designed and performed on a number of conical work pieces both in constant spindle spe...