( e extreme condensation of chromosomes t...)Researchers shed light on shrinking of chromosomes

e extreme condensation of chromosomes towards the end of cell division can also serve as a safety net if something goes wrong with chromosome separation in earlier phases of division. When the researchers added chemicals to the cell to block the late condensation, more separation defects appeared.

“Sometimes chromosomes get stuck and cannot be fully separated by the spindle that normally distributes them into the daughter cells,” says Felipe Mora-Bermúdez, who carried out the experiments in Ellenberg’s lab, “we think that the ‘super condensation’ at later stages helps to disentangle such chromosomes and acts as a back-up mechanism to rescue separation defects.”

The EMBL researchers found that an enzyme called Aurora kinase is crucially involved in this process. Blocking this enzyme abolishes late condensation of chromosomes. They now hope to uncover the detailed molecular mechanism underlying the late shortening of chromosomes. This could further advance our understanding of cell division and the risk factors that lead to defects in chromosome separation and their dramatic consequences.

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Source:European Molecular Biology Laboratory

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