Kinesins to the core: The role of microtubule-based motor proteins in building the mitotic spindle midzone

Jessica E. Hornick, Kul Karanjeet, Elizabeth S. Collins, Edward H. Hinchcliffe*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

24 Scopus citations

Abstract

In mammalian cultured cells the initiation of cytokinesis is regulated - both temporally and spatially - by the overlapping, anti-parallel microtubules of the spindle midzone. This region recruits several key central spindle components: PRC-1, polo-like kinase 1 (Plk-1), the centralspindlin complex, and the chromosome passenger complex (CPC), which together serve to stabilize the microtubule overlap, and also to coordinate the assembly of the cortical actin/myosin cytoskeleton necessary to physically cleave the cell in two. The localization of these crucial elements to the spindle midzone requires members of the kinesin superfamily of microtubule-based motor proteins. Here we focus on reviewing the role played by a variety of kinesins in both building and operating the spindle midzone machinery during cytokinesis.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)290-299
Number of pages10
JournalSeminars in Cell and Developmental Biology
Volume21
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2010

Funding

EHH wishes to thank Ron Vale for teaching him how to purify “real” kinesin (and calamari) during the 1992 MBL Physiology course in Woods Hole, MA. JEH is supported by a post-doctoral training grant from the National Institutes of Health ( T32 CA080621 ). Work in the Hinchcliffe lab is supported by a research grant from the National Institutes of Health ( R01 GM072754 ).

Keywords

  • Cytokinesis
  • Kinesin
  • Microtubule
  • Mitosis
  • Motor protein

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Cell Biology
  • Developmental Biology

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