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1: J Cell Sci. 2007 Aug 15;120(Pt 16):2819-27. Epub 2007 Jul 24.
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A conserved role for kinesin-5 in plant mitosis.

Bannigan A, Scheible WR, Lukowitz W, Fagerstrom C, Wadsworth P, Somerville C, Baskin TI.

Biology Department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA.

The mitotic spindle of vascular plants is assembled and maintained by processes that remain poorly explored at a molecular level. Here, we report that AtKRP125c, one of four kinesin-5 motor proteins in arabidopsis, decorates microtubules throughout the cell cycle and appears to function in both interphase and mitosis. In a temperature-sensitive mutant, interphase cortical microtubules are disorganized at the restrictive temperature and mitotic spindles are massively disrupted, consistent with a defect in the stabilization of anti-parallel microtubules in the spindle midzone, as previously described in kinesin-5 mutants from animals and yeast. AtKRP125c introduced into mammalian epithelial cells by transfection decorates microtubules throughout the cell cycle but is unable to complement the loss of the endogenous kinesin-5 motor (Eg5). These results are among the first reports of any motor with a major role in anastral spindle structure in plants and demonstrate that the conservation of kinesin-5 motor function throughout eukaryotes extends to vascular plants.

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PMID: 17652157 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]