Abstract
Chromosome motility is a highly regulated and complex process that ultimately achieves proper segregation of the replicated genome. Recent modeling studies provide a computational framework for investigating how microtubule assembly dynamics, motor protein activity and mitotic spindle mechanical properties are integrated to drive chromosome motility. Among other things, these studies show that metaphase chromosome oscillations can be explained by a range of assumptions, and that non-oscillatory states can be achieved with modest changes to the model parameters. In addition, recent microscopy studies provide new insight into the nature of the coupling between force on the kinetochore and kinetochore-microtubule assembly/disassembly. Together, these studies facilitate advancement toward a unified model that quantitatively predicts chromosome motility.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 639-647 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Current Opinion in Cell Biology |
Volume | 18 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 2006 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We thank Drs. Chad Pearson, Alan Hunt, Ajit Joglekar, Gul Civelekoglu-Scholey, and Jon Scholey for helpful comments on the manuscript. MKG is supported by National Institutes of Health NRSA Pre-doctoral Fellowship EB005568 and DJO is supported by National Institutes of Health grant GM071522.