Scientists Deconstruct Cell Division

The last step of the cell cycle is the brief but spectacularly dynamic and complicated mitosis phase, which leads to the duplication of one mother cell into two daughter cells. In mitosis, the chromosomes condense and the nucleus breaks down. Fibrous structures called spindles form, which then move the chromosomal material toward opposite ends of a cell and help partition other cell contents. If something goes wrong, diseases such as cancer can arise. Scientists have tried for years to unravel the process of spindle assembly. Now, researchers at Carnegie’s Department of Embryology have found that two proteins— dynein and Nudel—involved in other cell-division functions, are essential to regulate assembly of the spindle matrix.

Source ciw.edu