Kar3 (green) and kinetochores (red dot at tip of arrow) slide along a microtubule together.

Kinetochores heading for the spindle poles early in mitosis have two travel options, as Tanaka et al. show on page 269. They can slide on microtubules or get tugged along as the fibers shrink.

Before it can parcel out its chromosomes, a mitotic cell has to position them between the spindle poles. The process starts when microtubules from one pole attach to the kinetochore on the centromere of a chromosome. The kinetochore then moves toward that pole. Two years ago, the researchers showed that, during this early stage, kinetochores attach to the side of the microtubules and slide along. The protein Kar3 was essential for the motion. But that wasn't the whole story.

Tanaka et al. probed the initial kinetochore–microtubule interaction by temporarily inactivating one yeast centromere, forcing the...

The Rockefeller University Press
2007
The Rockefeller University Press
2007
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