Mitotic spindle

The mitotic spindle is a dynamic apparatus of microtubules and associated proteins that attaches to chromosomes and segregates them into daughter cells during cell division.

Centrosome: A cellular organelle that organizes microtubules and duplicates before cell division in many animal cells. In animal cells, centrosomes organize the spindle’s two poles.
Microtubule: A hollow cytoskeletal polymer assembled from tubulin that helps organize cells and move cellular components. Microtubules form the spindle’s load-bearing and force-generating fibers.
Bipolar spindle: A spindle with two opposite poles that organizes chromosomes for segregation to two daughter cells. This is the canonical architecture of chromosome segregation in mitosis.
Paclitaxel: A chemotherapy drug that stabilizes microtubules and disrupts normal cell division. Its interference with spindle microtubule dynamics can halt dividing cancer cells.
Bacterial chromosome segregation: The processes that position and separate bacterial chromosomes, which generally lack mitotic spindles. Bacteria segregate chromosomes without the eukaryotic spindle apparatus.
Kinetochore: A protein assembly on a chromosome’s centromere that binds spindle microtubules during cell division. This chromosome-bound structure provides the spindle’s main attachment site.
Tubulin: A family of proteins whose alpha and beta subunits assemble into microtubules. Tubulin assembly and disassembly let spindle fibers grow and shrink.
Meiotic spindle: A microtubule apparatus that segregates chromosomes during the two divisions of meiosis. It shares core machinery with the mitotic spindle but supports different chromosome-segregation outcomes.
Vinca alkaloid: A class of chemotherapy drugs that inhibits microtubule assembly. These drugs impair spindle formation and chromosome segregation.
Meiosis: A two-stage cell division that produces haploid cells and reshuffles inherited genetic material. Meiosis uses related spindle machinery but separates homologous chromosomes as well as sister chromatids.

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