Clamping of microtubule attachment sites at the kinetochore: prevention or correction of merotelic attachments?

Abstract

The regulation of chromosome segregation is important to insure equal distribution of genetic material between daughter cells. This research proposal will focus on the regulation of chromosome segregation through the prevention and correction of erroneous kinetochore-microtubule attachments, in particularly merotelic attachments. One possible prevention mechanism of merotelic attachments is clamping of microtubule attachment sites and has been identified in yeast. Clamping orients the attachment sites towards the correct spindle pole. We hypothesise that clamping is a conserved prevention method and have proposed an approach to identify and characterize the putative mammalian proteins that could constitute a clamping mechanism.