First published online June 25, 2007
Journal of Cell Science 120, 1301e (2007)
© The Company of Biologists Limited
Spindles stretch titin-ically
The giant protein titin provides the elastic force that returns stretched muscle to its resting length. But its elastic properties may not be restricted to muscles, suggest Arthur Forer and co-authors on p. 2190. Titin, they report, might also provide elasticity to the spindle and spindle matrix when insect spermatocytes divide. The authors have raised antibodies against three different fragments of titin and used them to determine the localisation of titin in dividing crane fly and locust spermatocytes. In both species, the antibodies stain the spermatocyte spindle (at all stages of division), the spindle fibres, and the structures that extend between partner chromosomes during anaphase. The spindle matrix proteins skeletor, megator and chromator, the authors report, as well as actin and myosin, are present in many of the same structures and colocalize with titin. They therefore propose that interactions between titin and these proteins might give the spindle and its matrix elastic properties.
Related articles in JCS:
- Titin in insect spermatocyte spindle fibers associates with microtubules, actin, myosin and the matrix proteins skeletor, megator and chromator
- Lacramioara Fabian, Xuequin Xia, Deepa V. Venkitaramani, Kristen M. Johansen, Jørgen Johansen, Deborah J. Andrew, and Arthur Forer
JCS 2007 120: 2190-2204.
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