The Journal of Cell Biology, Vol 67, 789-800, Copyright © 1975 by The Rockefeller University Press
Temperature dependence of anaphase chromosome velocity and microtubule depolymerization
JW Fuseler
The time course of chromosome movement and decay of half-spindle
birefringence retardation in anaphase have been precisely determined in the
endosperm cell of a plant Tilia americana and in the egg of an animal
Asterias forbesi. For each species, the anaphase retardation decay rate
constant and chromosome velocity are similar exponential functions of
temperature. Over the temperature range at which these cells can complete
anaphase, chromosome velocity and retardation rate constant yield a
positive linear relationship when plotted against each other. At the higher
temperatures where the chromosomes move faster, the spindle retardation
decays faster, even though the absolute spindle retardation is greater.
Chromosome velocity thus parallels the anaphase spindle retardation decay
rate, or rate of spindle microtubule depolymerization, rather than absolute
spindle retardation, or the amount of microtubules in the spindle. These
observations suggest that a common mechanism exists for mitosis in plant
and animal cells. The rate of anaphase chromosome movement is associated
with an apparent first-order process of spindle fiber disassembly. This
process irreversibly prevents spindle fiber subunits from participating in
the polymerization equilibrium and removes microtubular subunits from
chromosomal spindle fibers.
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