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Anatomy of a kinetochore: Building a microtubule attachment site
Author(s) -
Cheeseman Iain
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.25.1_supplement.66.1
Subject(s) - kinetochore , microtubule , anatomy , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , genetics , chromosome , gene
Chromosome segregation during mitosis requires a multi‐protein structure termed the kinetochore to mediate attachments between centromeric DNA and spindle microtubule polymers, as well as couple the dynamics of these polymers to chromosome movement. Recent work from our laboratory and others has identified more than 90 different proteins that make up the macromolecular kinetochore structure. However, this is not a static molecular structure, but is instead very dynamic throughout the cell cycle. Indeed, during a time span of approximately one hour during mitosis, the vertebrate kinetochore must recruit more than 40 mitotic‐specific components to facilitate attachments to microtubules, and then subsequently disassemble these proteins to return to an interphase state. I will discuss our work to define the assembly processes and associations that are required to build this complex molecular machine, mediate interactions with microtubule polymers, and regulate kinetochore function to ensure the high fidelity of chromosome segregation.