Subscribe & download
Filter events
|
12:20pm
to
1:20pm |
|
"Finding the Middle Ground: Microtubule length regulation in mitotic spindles":
(Seminar/Conference)
Speaker: Dr. Linda Wordeman, Ph.D., University of Washington, School of Medicine, Department of Physiology and Biophysics
During cell division chromosomes must attach to the mitotic spindle and travel to the midpoint of the bipolar spindle. This process has been observed for over 100 years and is described as "congression". We have found that congression is powered by microtubule motors attached to the chromosome arms and is further tuned by regulation of microtubule length within the spindle. Microtubule motors specialized to regulate tubulin assembly at microtubule ends are responsible for length regulation in the spindle using mechanisms that are as yet poorly understood. Why is precise regulation of microtubule length within the mitotic spindle important? We hypothesize that congression serves to recruit the kinetochores (the protein domain on the surface of the mitotic chromosomes to which microtubule ends attach) into a region in the middle of the spindle that is preferentially populated by microtubule ends. We present evidence that this facilitates the attachment of chromosomes to the spindle and significantly increases the fidelity of chromosome segregation during mitosis.
The Virginia Tech Life Science Seminars (VTLSS) / Molecular Cell Biology and Biotechnology (MCBB) seminars are an interdepartmental seminar series funded by Fralin Life Science Institute, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and VBI. The VTLSS/MCBB Seminars are held every Friday at 12:20 PM at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) Conference Center, during spring and fall semesters.
More information...
|
|
