Hierarchy of spindle forces in prometaphase

Abstract

Dramatic movements characterize rapid assembly of mitotic spindle in prometaphase: chromosomes congress to the spindle equator, while spindle poles segregate rapidly elongating the spindle. Direct biophysical measurements of forces driving these movements are lacking, but the forces could be learned from the rapid pole and chromosome movements. We analyzed 3D trajectories of chromosomes and spindle poles in the wild-type and PRC1-depleted cells during early prometaphase and reconstructed the spindle forces. This analysis posits that (i) chromosomes do not interact with each other, except for a short-range steric repulsion, (ii) effective pole-chromosome forces are repulsive at short and attractive at long distances, (iii) dominant forces of spindle poles segregation are interpolar in origin. The important implication of these results is that the pole-pole segregation is robust, largely insensitive to regional variations inside the cell and to complex process of chromosome congression.