ArticleMolecular biology of the cell2013
An allometric relationship between mitotic spindle width, spindle length, and ploidy in Caenorhabditis elegans embryos.
Article in Molecular biology of the cell, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers.
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Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 55 citations in OpenAlex.
- Power-law scaling of mitotic spindles with genome sizes across eukaryotes is driven by chromosome crowding.Nature cell biology · 2026Article
- Cell size reduction distinctly scales spindle elongation and chromosome segregation in C. elegans.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Cell size reduction scales spindle elongation but not chromosome segregation inResearch square · 2025Article
- Cell size reduction scales spindle elongation but not chromosome segregation inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Inward transport of organelles drives outward migration of the spindle during C. elegans meiosis.Cell reports · 2025Article
- Comparative Pharmacological Analysis of Mitotic Inhibitors Using Isogenic Ploidy Series of HAP1 Cells.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2025Article
- Microtubule length correlates with spindle length in C. elegans meiosis.Cytoskeleton (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2024Article
- An Emerging Animal Model for Querying the Role of Whole Genome Duplication in Development, Evolution, and Disease.Journal of developmental biology · 2023Review
- Cell-based allometry: an approach for evaluation of complexity in morphogenesis.Quantitative biology (Beijing, China) · 2023Article
- Tetraploidy-linked sensitization to CENP-E inhibition in human cells.Molecular oncology · 2023Article
- Regulation of organelle size and organization during development.Seminars in cell & developmental biology · 2023Review
- Review
- Volumetric morphometry reveals spindle width as the best predictor of mammalian spindle scaling.The Journal of cell biology · 2022Article
- BUB1B and circBUB1B_544aa aggravate multiple myeloma malignancy through evoking chromosomal instability.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2021Article
- CHEK1 and circCHEK1_246aa evoke chromosomal instability and induce bone lesion formation in multiple myeloma.Molecular cancer · 2021Article
- Scaling Laws for Mitotic Chromosomes.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2021Article
- Scaling of Subcellular Structures.Annual review of cell and developmental biology · 2020Review
- Article
- Organelle size scaling over embryonic development.Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Developmental biology · 2020Review
- Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The mitotic spindle is a diamond-shaped molecular apparatus crucial for chromosomal segregation. The regulation of spindle length is well studied, but little is known about spindle width. Previous studies suggested that the spindle can self-organize to maintain a constant aspect ratio between its length and width against physical perturbations. Here we determine the widths of metaphase spindles of various sizes observed during embryogenesis in Caenorhabditis elegans, including small spindles obtained by knocking down the tpxl-1 or spd-2 gene. The spindle width correlates well with the spindle length, but the aspect ratio between the spindle length and spindle width is not constant, indicating an allometric relationship between these parameters. We characterize how DNA quantity (ploidy) affects spindle shape by using haploid and polyploid embryos. We find that the length of the hypotenuse, which corresponds to the distance from the apex of the metaphase plate to the spindle pole, remains constant in each cell stage, regardless of ploidy. On the basis of the quantitative data, we deduce an allometric equation that describes the spindle width as a function of the length of the hypotenuse and ploidy. On the basis of this equation, we propose a force-balance model to determine the spindle width.
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