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  • Historical Perspective
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Mitosis: a history of division

Nature Cell Biology volume 3, pages E17–E21 (2001)Cite this article

Abstract

Mitosis has been studied since the early 1880s, to the extent that we now have a detailed, but still incomplete, description of spindle dynamics and mechanics, a sense of potential mechanochemical and regulatory mechanisms at a molecular level, and a long list of mitotic proteins. Here we present a personal view of how far we have come, and where we need to go to fully understand the mechanisms involved in mitosis.

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Figure 1: Old and new views of mitotic chromosomes.
Figure 2: Evolution of ideas for spindle organization and force generation.
Figure 3: Evolution of microtubule-marking technology.
Figure 4: Motor proteins are important in spindle assembly and function.
Figure 5: Mitotic arrest and the spindle-assembly checkpoint.

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Acknowledgements

Nature Cell Biology gratefully acknowledges all the publishers who provided images for this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Deparment of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    T. J. Mitchison

  2. Department of Biology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

    E. D. Salmon

Authors
  1. T. J. Mitchison
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  2. E. D. Salmon
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Supplementary information

Figure S1a

Evidence of highly dynamic spindle microtubules (PDF 44 kb)

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Mitchison, T., Salmon, E. Mitosis: a history of division. Nat Cell Biol 3, E17–E21 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35050656

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