Pole-to-chromosome movements induced at metaphase: sites of microtubule disassembly.

Metaphase spindles can be induced to shrink by treating cells with microtubule-depolymerizing agents. During treatment, the paired sister chromatids remain at the metaphase plate and the poles move toward them. The question we asked is whether this pole-to-chromosome movement was accompanied by a loss of subunits from the kinetochore ends of the microtubules, the polar ends, or both ends. LLC-PK cells were injected at late prometaphase with Xrhodamine tubulin and at metaphase the fluorescent spindles were marked by photobleaching a bar between one pole and the chromosomes. Nocodazole at low concentrations was briefly applied to the cells to induce the shortening of the spindle and movement of the poles inward toward the chromosomes. In the induced shortening, the distance between the photobleached bar and the chromosomes decreased substantially while the distance between the bar and the pole showed a smaller change. Upon reversal from nocodazole, new polymer was added to the spindle as determined by recovery of fluorescence, and the cells progressed through mitosis and cytokinesis. We conclude that the movement of the poles to the chromosomes induced by nocodazole treatment during metaphase is similar to the chromosome-to-pole movement occurring during anaphase in that under both conditions the primary site for kinetochore microtubule disassembly is at the kinetochore.