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The microtubule nucleating capacity of chromosomes was tested in vitro in lysates of Chinese hamster ovary cells. Colcemid-blocked mitotic cells were lysed with the detergent Triton X-100, incubated with exogenous porcine brain tubulin, attached to electron microscope grids and observed as whole-mounts. Under suitable conditions, greater than 98% of the chromosomes gave rise to microtubules at their kinetochore regions, thus unequivocally demonstrating that chromosomes are competent to initiate specifically microtubule formation. The average number of microtubules that polymerized onto a chromosome was 8 +/- 5, and greater than 36% of the chromosomes had between 10 and 19 microtubules per kinetochore region. We conclude that under the lysis conditions employed, virtually all the chromosomes retain their kinetochores, and that the kinetochores retain a substantial fraction of their microtubule nucleating capacity.
R R Gould, and
G G Borisy
October 1979,
Chromosoma,
R R Gould, and
G G Borisy
January 1992,
Methods in enzymology,
R R Gould, and
G G Borisy
June 1982,
European journal of cell biology,
R R Gould, and
G G Borisy
September 1981,
FEBS letters,
R R Gould, and
G G Borisy
August 1977,
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,
R R Gould, and
G G Borisy
July 2007,
Molecular immunology,
R R Gould, and
G G Borisy
January 1981,
The Journal of heredity,
R R Gould, and
G G Borisy
September 1983,
European journal of biochemistry,
R R Gould, and
G G Borisy
January 1980,
The Journal of cell biology,
