The mitotic spindle: a complex and dynamic intracellular machine.

摘要

Diego Rivera's 1934 mural, Man at the Crossroads, depicts the great challenges and possibilities of the 20th century. Jutting from the center is a disembodied hand holding an orb containing a mi-totic spindle. Illustrations of a spindle-like arrangement of filaments surrounding the condensed chromosomes of mitotic cells first appear in scientific texts near the end of the 19th century and this structure has fascinated biologists (and some artists!) ever since [1,2]. We now know the spindle to be a macromolecular machine that uses microtubules (spindle fibers) to capture, move and segregate chromosomes into the daughter cell products of cell division. It is extraordinarily dynamic-both the spindle itself and chromosomes on it are in continuous motion-and this dynamism is central to its function [3].