Journal
BIOPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Volume 120, Issue 17, Pages 3641-3648Publisher
CELL PRESS
DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2021.07.024
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Funding
- European Research Council [855158, 647077]
- Croatian Science Foundation [IP-2019-04-5967, PZS-2019-02-7653]
- QuantiXLie Center of Excellence
- Croatian Government
- European Union through the European Regional Development Fund-the Competitiveness and Cohesion Operational Programme [KK.01.1.1.01.0004]
- European Research Council (ERC) [647077, 855158] Funding Source: European Research Council (ERC)
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This study presents a simple method for measuring and evaluating the shapes of microtubule bundles in the mitotic spindle, which allows for understanding the forces acting within them. By extracting curvature and twist information using confocal microscopy, this method helps in the comprehension of forces that act on chromosomes during mitosis.
The highly ordered spatial organization of microtubule bundles in the mitotic spindle is crucial for its proper functioning. The recent discovery of twisted shapes of microtubule bundles and spindle chirality suggests that the bundles extend along curved paths in three dimensions, rather than being confined to a plane. This, in turn, implies that rotational forces, i.e., torques, exist in the spindle in addition to the widely studied linear forces. However, studies of spindle architecture and forces are impeded by a lack of a robust method for the geometric quantification of microtubule bundles in the spindle. In this work, we describe a simple method for measuring and evaluating the shapes of microtubule bundles by characterizing them in terms of their curvature and twist. By using confocal microscopy, we obtain three-dimensional images of spindles, which allows us to trace the entire microtubule bundle. For each traced bundle, we first fit a plane and then fit a circle lying in that plane. With this robust method, we extract the curvature and twist, which represent the geometric information characteristic for each bundle. As the bundle shapes reflect the forces within them, this method is valuable for the understanding of forces that act on chromosomes during mitosis.
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