FOCAL POINT Shweta Bendre (left), Alexander Bird (right), and colleagues reveal that, during mitosis, a protein called GTSE1 tunes spindle microtubule stability by inhibiting the microtubule depolymerase MCAK. Spindle microtubules (gray) are destabilized in the absence of GTSE1 (far right), leading to delays in the capture and alignment of mitotic chromosomes (red) at the metaphase plate. Errors in kinetochore–microtubule attachment can be corrected more easily, however, such that cancer cell lines that have hyperstable microtubules and are prone to chromosome instability segregate their chromosomes more accurately when GTSE1 is depleted. In contrast, GTSE1 overexpression induces chromosome instability in cancer cell lines that normally segregate their chromosomes correctly. / PHOTO COURTESY OF THE AUTHORS

FOCAL POINT Shweta Bendre (left), Alexander Bird (right), and colleagues reveal that, during mitosis, a protein called GTSE1 tunes spindle microtubule stability by inhibiting the microtubule depolymerase MCAK. Spindle microtubules (gray) are destabilized in the absence of GTSE1 (far right), leading to delays in the capture and alignment of mitotic chromosomes (red) at the metaphase plate. Errors in kinetochore–microtubule attachment can be corrected more easily, however, such that cancer cell lines that have hyperstable microtubules and are prone to chromosome instability segregate their chromosomes more accurately when GTSE1 is depleted. In contrast, GTSE1 overexpression induces chromosome instability in cancer cell lines that normally segregate their chromosomes correctly.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE AUTHORS

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