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Fig. 6. Decrease in securin levels in nocodazole-arrested cells. (A) Schematic overview of the experimental settings. Asynchronously grown HeLa cells were transfected with Cdc20 siRNA for 22 hours. To obtain a synchronous culture of mitotic cells, we first shook-off mitotic cells to remove cells that had already spent some time in mitosis, and then collected cells that entered and stayed in mitosis within the next 2 hours. Subsequently, cells were transferred to a growing medium containing 100 ng/ml nocodazole, incubated for another 1.5 hours, and analyzed by chromosome spreading and Giemsa staining. (B) Depletion of Cdc20 by RNAi. Total cell extracts were prepared from mitotic cells that were used in the experiment. (C) One-hundred prometaphase/metaphase cells were classified based on chromosome-arm status. The dark-grey and white populations represent cells with open and closed arms, respectively. An unclassified population is shown in light grey. (D) HeLa cells were synchronized at early S phase by the double-thymidine-block regimen and, at 6.5 hours after the release, cells were treated either with 100 ng/ml nocodazole or 25 µM MG132, or with the solvent DMSO. Total cell extracts were analyzed by immunoblotting with the indicated antibodies. In nocodazole-arrest experiments, we noticed a slight reduction in the protein levels of securin. Note that phospho-H3 first appears at 6 hours after the release in both nocodazole- and MG132-treated cells, as in DMSO-treated cells, suggesting that the timing of mitotic entry is not largely affected by these treatments.
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