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Letter

Nature Cell Biology 9, 832–837 (1 July 2007) | doi:10.1038/ncb1609

Tension applied through the Dam1 complex promotes microtubule elongation providing a direct mechanism for length control in mitosis

Andrew D. Franck , Andrew F. Powers , Daniel R. Gestaut , Tamir Gonen , Trisha N. Davis & Charles L. Asbury

In dividing cells, kinetochores couple chromosomes to the tips of growing and shortening microtubule fibres and tension at the kinetochore–microtubule interface promotes fibre elongation. Tension-dependent microtubule fibre elongation is thought to be essential for coordinating chromosome alignment and separation, but the mechanism underlying this effect is unknown.