The newest publication of the lab is out this month in Nature Cell Biology. Don’t miss it!
Reber SB, Baumgart J, Widlund PO, Pozniakovsky A, Howard J, Hyman AA, Jülicher F. XMAP215 activity sets spindle length by controlling the total mass of spindle microtubules. Nat Cell Biol. 2013 Aug 25.
Description: Work in our lab has elucidated the detailed function of XMAP215, a processive microtubule polymerase. Using engineered XMAP215 mutants we now show that spindle length correlates linearly with microtubule growth velocity while other parameters of spindle organization remain constant. Combining experiments and theory, we propose that spindle length is set by a balance of non-uniform nucleation and global microtubule disassembly in a liquid crystal-like arrangement of microtubules. (credit: Simone Reber)