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Review
Control At The Cell Center: The Role Of Spindle Poles In Cytoskeletal Organization And Cell Cycle Regulation
Lara Cuschieri, Thao Nguyen and Jackie Vogel
volume 6 | issue 22
15 November 2007Pages: 2788 - 2794
This is an open-access article
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Microtubule organizing centres (MTOCs), which include fungal spindle pole bodies and centrosome in higher eukaryotes, are a structurally diverse group of organelles that share a conserved role in microtubule nucleation and spindle formation. However, recent studies propose that the function of MTOC components extends far beyond these established roles. Numerous cell cycle regulators, checkpoint proteins, and microtubule plus tip binding proteins localize to MTOCs during the cell cycle, suggesting that these organelles serve as cellular scaffolds. In addition, several MTOC components such as γ-tubulin and its associating proteins have been directly implicated in the control of cell cycle progression, activation of checkpoint responses and the regulation of microtubule organization and dynamics. Collectively, these findings implicate MTOCs as cellular control centers that coordinate events at both microtubule minus ends and plus ends with the cell cycle. In this review, we discuss recent studies that support a role for MTOC components, in particular γ-tubulin, in cell cycle progression, checkpoint response and the coordination of microtubule organization and dynamics.
Authors
Lara Cuschieri
McGill University; Montreal, Quebec Canada
Thao Nguyen
McGill University; Montreal, Quebec Canada
Jackie Vogel
McGill University; Montreal, Quebec Canada
This is an open-access article
If the document does not open, please right-click on the link (control-click on a Macintosh) and select the option to save the file to disk.




