Theory of mitotic spindle oscillations.

During unequal cell division the mitotic spindle is positioned away from the center of the cell before cell cleavage. In many biological systems this repositioning is accompanied by oscillatory movements of the spindle. We present a theoretical description for mitotic spindle oscillations. We show that the cooperative attachment and detachment of cortical force generators to astral microtubules leads to spontaneous oscillations beyond a critical number of force generators. This mechanism can quantitatively describe the spindle oscillations observed during unequal division of the one cell stage Caenorhabditis elegans embryo.