The N terminus of Nde1 can focus microtubules into asters. (a) Immunoblot analysis of dynein IC (DIC) and LIS1 pulled down from CSF-arrested Xenopus egg extract by the indicated recombinant mouse Nde1 proteins. (b) Level of Ndel1 depletion from CSF-arrested egg extracts with affinity-purified polyclonal α-Ndel1 antibody analyzed by Western blot. (c) Addition of mNde17–170 to xNdel1-depleted extracts rescues aster formation. (d) Quantification of microtubule structures from three independent experiments where Ndel1-depleted extracts were rescued with the indicated mouse Nde1 variants; over 100 microtubule structures were quantified from each experiment; asterisks indicate statistically significant differences (Student’s t test with P < 0.05; *** indicates P < 0.0005). Bar, 20 µm.
