In new research, scientists take a biophysical approach to deciphering the cell’s mysteries.
The human body is composed of more than 1 trillion cells, yet each human body begins as just one cell. To go from one to 1 trillion requires cell division: the very precise process by which chromosomes, the cell’s genetic material, are brought together at the cell’s center and then swiftly separated, as one cell becomes two. When the process is viewed under a microscope, ‘threads’ appear to pull the chromosomes apart in a graceful motion — like an invisible puppeteer pulling strings. These so-called threads directing the choreography of separation are part of the spindle, itself a complex of microscopic structures that lies at the heart of cell division. Interestingly, the spindle has been observed to vary in form in concert with the changing cell-division machinery during development and, more broadly, throughout evolution. However, despite the spindle’s ubiquity in biology, the nature of the forces acting on it has been a persistent scientific mystery.
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