Mechanisms of chromosome movement during cell division

当染色体在细胞分裂过程中不均匀地分布到两个子细胞中时，所产生的细胞死亡或变得异常，例如，导致出生缺陷或癌症。我们研究染色体是如何移动到两个子细胞的。当染色体在细胞分裂前移到细胞的两极时，在每条染色体和两极之间延伸的“纺锤纤维”会变短，而宽度不会改变。我们可以把这比作一艘船，它由一根坚硬的绳子连接到一个码头上，然后它就会驶向码头。流行的观点是绞车把绳子拉到码头上。然而，我们已经证明，其他力量推动着船：在我们(通过局部照射)切断绳索后，船继续正常地移动到码头，所以外力(来自“主轴母体”)必须将船推向码头--例如，人们可能站在浅水中将剩余的绳索拉到码头，或者水中的水流可能会将船推到码头。我们已经使用特定的药物来确定哪些(非绳索)组件可能产生力；我们将使用局部照射、药物治疗和遗传工具来识别和研究推动绳索和船到达码头的力。

When chromosomes are not distributed equally into the two daughter cells during cell division, the resultant cells die or become abnormal, e.g., leading to birth defects or cancers. We study how chromosomes move to the two daughter cells. As chromosomes move to the two "poles" of the cell before the cell divides, a "spindle fibre" extending between each chromosome and the pole shortens without changing width. We can compare this to a boat connected by a rigid rope to a dock toward which it moves. The prevailing view is that a winch pulls the rope to the dock. We have shown, however, that other forces propel the boat: the boat continues to move normally to the dock after we sever the rope (by local irradiation), so external forces (from a "spindle matrix") must propel the boat to the dock - e.g., people might stand in the shallow water and pull the remnant rope to the dock, or currents in the water might propel the boat to the dock. We have used specific drugs to identify which (non-rope) components might produce forces; we will use local irradiations, drug treatments, and genetic tools to identify and study the forces that propel the rope and boat to the dock.