Experimental and theoretical study of mitotic spindle orientation (original) (raw)

Nature volume 447, pages 493–496 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

The architecture and adhesiveness of a cell microenvironment is a critical factor for the regulation of spindle orientation in vivo1,2. Using a combination of theory and experiments, we have investigated spindle orientation in HeLa (human) cells. Here we show that spindle orientation can be understood as the result of the action of cortical force generators, which interact with spindle microtubules and are activated by cortical cues. We develop a simple physical description of this spindle mechanics, which allows us to calculate angular profiles of the torque acting on the spindle, as well as the angular distribution of spindle orientations. Our model accounts for the preferred spindle orientation and the shape of the full angular distribution of spindle orientations observed in a large variety of different cellular microenvironment geometries. It also correctly describes asymmetric spindle orientations, which are observed for certain distributions of cortical cues. We conclude that, on the basis of a few simple assumptions, we can provide a quantitative description of the spindle orientation of adherent cells.

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Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments We thank A. Pépin and Y. Chen for technical help with micropattern fabrication, J.-B. Sibarita for technical help with video-microscopy, D. Grunwald for technical help with confocal image acquisitions and Y. Bellaïche for discussions.

Author Contributions M.T. performed experimental work, A.J.-D. performed numerical calculations, V.R. designed the software for movie analyses, and M.T., A.J.-D., M.B. and F.J. conceived the theoretical model.

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Author notes

  1. Manuel Théry and Andrea Jiménez-Dalmaroni: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut Curie, CNRS UMR144, Compartimentation et Dynamique Cellulaire, 26 rue d’Ulm, 75248 Paris, France,
    Manuel Théry, Victor Racine & Michel Bornens
  2. Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique, DSV, iRTSV, Laboratoire Biopuces, 17 rue des Martyrs, 38054 Grenoble, France,
    Manuel Théry
  3. Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Nöthnitzer Str. 38, 01187 Dresden, Germany,
    Andrea Jiménez-Dalmaroni & Frank Jülicher

Authors

  1. Manuel Théry
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  2. Andrea Jiménez-Dalmaroni
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  3. Victor Racine
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  4. Michel Bornens
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  5. Frank Jülicher
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence toMichel Bornens or Frank Jülicher.

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Reprints and permissions information is available at www.nature.com/reprints. The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Supplementary Information

This file contains Supplementary Text with the full description of the model, Supplementary Discussion, Supplementary Figures S1- S3 with Legends and additional references. (PDF 1546 kb)

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Théry, M., Jiménez-Dalmaroni, A., Racine, V. et al. Experimental and theoretical study of mitotic spindle orientation.Nature 447, 493–496 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature05786

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Editorial Summary

Axis of cell division

The orientation of the cell division axis is critical for normal growth and development as it determines the fate of future daughter cells. The extracellular matrix that the cells adhere to plays a role in determining the orientation of the division axis. A combination of experiment in HeLa cells and quantitative theory has shown that spindle orientation is controlled by cortical force generators based on cues from the geometry of the cellular microenvironment. A simple model based on pulling forces exerted by force generators on spindle microtubules can quantitatively describe spindle orientations in many different geometries.