ArticleDevelopmental cell2020
Microtubules Enhance Mesoscale Effective Diffusivity in the Crowded Metaphase Cytoplasm.
Article in Developmental cell, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 33 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cell state-specific cytoplasmic density controls spindle architecture and scaling.Nature cell biology · 2025Article
- Article
- Polysome collapse and RNA condensation fluidize the cytoplasm.Molecular cell · 2024Article
- Development and Characterization of 50 nanometer diameter Genetically Encoded Multimeric Nanoparticles.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Article
- How it feels in a cell.Trends in cell biology · 2023Review
- SEC14-like condensate phase transitions at plasma membranes regulate root growth in Arabidopsis.PLoS biology · 2023Article
- Mechanisms underlying spindle assembly and robustness.Nature reviews. Molecular cell biology · 2023Review
- Vast heterogeneity in cytoplasmic diffusion rates revealed by nanorheology and Doppelgänger simulations.Biophysical journal · 2023Article
- Size- and position-dependent cytoplasm viscoelasticity through hydrodynamic interactions with the cell surface.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Cytoplasmic organization promotes protein diffusion in Xenopus extracts.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Contribution of cytoplasm viscoelastic properties to mitotic spindle positioning.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Mesoscale macromolecular complexes and organelles, tens to hundreds of nanometers in size, crowd the eukaryotic cytoplasm. It is therefore unclear how mesoscale particles remain sufficiently mobile to regulate dynamic processes such as cell division. Here, we study mobility across dividing cells that contain densely packed, dynamic microtubules, comprising the metaphase spindle. In dividing human cells, we tracked 40 nm genetically encoded multimeric nanoparticles (GEMs), whose sizes are commensurate with the inter-filament spacing in metaphase spindles. Unexpectedly, the effective diffusivity of GEMs was similar inside the dense metaphase spindle and the surrounding cytoplasm. Eliminating microtubules or perturbing their polymerization dynamics decreased diffusivity by ~30%, suggesting that microtubule polymerization enhances random displacements to amplify diffusive-like motion. Our results suggest that microtubules effectively fluidize the mitotic cytoplasm to equalize mesoscale mobility across a densely packed, dynamic, non-uniform environment, thus spatially maintaining a key biophysical parameter that impacts biochemistry, ranging from metabolism to the nucleation of cytoskeletal filaments.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.