Mechanisms of chromosome movement during cell division

当染色体在细胞分裂过程中没有均匀地分布到两个子细胞中时，产生的细胞就会死亡或变得异常，例如导致出生缺陷或癌症。我们研究染色体如何移动到两个子细胞。当染色体在细胞分裂前移动到细胞的两个“极点”时，延伸在每条染色体和极点之间的“纺锤体纤维”变短，但宽度不变。我们可以把它比作一艘船，用一根坚硬的绳子把它连接到一个码头上，然后它就朝这个码头移动。普遍的看法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：在我们切断绳子（通过局部照射）后，船继续正常地向码头移动，所以外力（来自“主轴矩阵”）必须将船推进码头-例如，人们可能站在浅水中并将剩余的绳子拉到码头，或者水中的水流可能将船推进码头。我们使用了特定的药物来确定哪些（非绳索）部件可能产生力；我们将使用局部照射、药物治疗和基因工具来识别和研究将绳子和船推向码头的力量。

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.