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Intra-nuclear microtubules and a mitotic spindle orientation checkpoint

Abstract

Cells of the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe have a checkpoint mechanism that reportedly monitors the orientation of the mitotic spindle. Astral microtubules in pre-anaphase spindles are thought to contact the contractile actin ring at the plasma membrane in order to rotate the spindle and to sense spindle orientation. Here, we show that these microtubules are actually inside the nuclear envelope.

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Figure 1: Pre-anaphase mitotic spindles do not have cytoplasmic astral microtubules.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank S. Oliferenko, P. Nurse, D. Burgess and other members of the Chang laboratory for discussion, and I. Hagan and T. Toda for strains. This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health and an Irma Hirschl Charitable Trust award to F.C.

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Correspondence to Fred Chang.

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Zimmerman, S., Daga, R. & Chang, F. Intra-nuclear microtubules and a mitotic spindle orientation checkpoint. Nat Cell Biol 6, 1245–1246 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb1200

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