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Published 18 December 2006. doi:10.1083/jcb.200608117
The Rockefeller University Press, 0021-9525 $8.00
JCB, Volume 175, Number 6, 881-891
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Article

 Katanin controls mitotic and meiotic spindle length

Karen McNally1, Anjon Audhya2, Karen Oegema2, and Francis J. McNally1

1 Section of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616
2 Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093

Correspondence to Francis J. McNally: fjmcnally{at}ucdavis.edu

Accurate control of spindle length is a conserved feature of eukaryotic cell division. Lengthening of mitotic spindles contributes to chromosome segregation and cytokinesis during mitosis in animals and fungi. In contrast, spindle shortening may contribute to conservation of egg cytoplasm during female meiosis. Katanin is a microtubule-severing enzyme that is concentrated at mitotic and meiotic spindle poles in animals. We show that inhibition of katanin slows the rate of spindle shortening in nocodazole-treated mammalian fibroblasts and in untreated Caenorhabditis elegans meiotic embryos. Wild-type C. elegans meiotic spindle shortening proceeds through an early katanin-independent phase marked by increasing microtubule density and a second, katanin-dependent phase that occurs after microtubule density stops increasing. In addition, double-mutant analysis indicated that {gamma}-tubulin–dependent nucleation and microtubule severing may provide redundant mechanisms for increasing microtubule number during the early stages of meiotic spindle assembly.

Abbreviations used in this paper: CCD, charge-coupled device; {gamma}-TuRC, {gamma}-tubulin ring complex.


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