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Cell biology

Myosins meet microtubules

Nature volume 431, pages 252–253 (2004)Cite this article

A central part of the machinery of cell division is the spindle. The creation and operation of this structure seem to require a component of the cell's infrastructure not previously associated with it.

A shocking thing has happened in the world of the cytoskeleton, the complex of proteins responsible for cell shape and movement. One of the most important structures it forms is the spindle, which ensures the faithful delivery of replicated chromosomes to daughter cells following cell division. Spindle assembly was once believed to be the sole responsibility of the cytoskeletal components known as microtubules, and their associated motor proteins (the dyneins and kinesins). The paper by Weber et al. on page 325 of this issue1 now shows that the process depends — in some circumstances at least — on another cytoskeletal component, actin, and an associated motor protein, a member of the myosin family, which can bind directly to microtubules.

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Figure 1: A myosin connection.

W. BEMENT

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  1. the Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 55455, Minnesota, USA

    Margaret A. Titus

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  1. Margaret A. Titus
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Titus, M. Myosins meet microtubules. Nature 431, 252–253 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/431252a

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