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Creation and testing of a new, local microtubule‐disruption tool based on the microtubule‐severing enzyme, katanin p60
Author(s) -
Advani Siddheshwari,
Maresca Thomas J.,
Ross Jennifer L.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
cytoskeleton
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.95
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1949-3592
pISSN - 1949-3584
DOI - 10.1002/cm.21482
Subject(s) - microtubule , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , kinetochore , cytoskeleton , microtubule associated protein , chromosome segregation , genetics , cell , chromosome , gene
Current methods to disrupt the microtubule cytoskeleton do not easily provide rapid, local control with standard cell manipulation reagents. Here, we develop a new microtubule‐disruption tool based on katanin p60 severing activity and demonstrate proof‐of‐principle by targeting it to kinetochores in Drosophila melanogaster S2 cells. Specifically, we show that human katanin p60 can remove microtubule polymer mass in S2 cells and an increase in misaligned chromosomes when globally overexpressed. When katanin p60 was targeted to the kinetochores via Mis12, we were able to recapitulate the misalignment only when using a phosphorylation‐resistant mutant katanin p60. Our results demonstrate that targeting an active version of katanin p60 to the kinetochore can reduce the fidelity of achieving full chromosome alignment in metaphase and could serve as a microtubule disruption tool for the future.