Fig. 3

Destabilisation of non-centrosomal microtubules prior to NEP is important for normal spindle assembly. a Representative time-lapse confocal images (x-y maximum projection) of a flat (Rap1*) HeLa cell during mitotic progression stably expressing mEGFP-α-tubulin and H2B-mRFP (shown only at –30, during metaphase and anaphase, to better visualise microtubules), treated with DMSO (upper panel), 1 nM Taxol (middle panel) or 2 nM Taxol (lower panel). b Changes in non-centrosomal microtubule levels relative to NEP for cells treated with DMSO (blue, seven cells pooled, two independent experiments), 2 nM Taxol (red, five cells, one independent experiment) or 1 nM Taxol (green, five cells, one independent experiment). Measurements are performed as described in Fig. 1e. Graphs show mean and SD. Right panel: comparison between DMSO and 1 nM and 2nM Taxol at –21, –3, 0 and 3 min relative to NEP. Repeated measures two-way ANOVA, Dunnett's multiple comparisons test, ****P ≤ 0.0001, **P ≤ 0.01, *P ≤ 0.05. c Quantification of percent mitotic spindle defects in cells (as above) treated with DMSO (34 cells, four independent experiments), 1 nM Taxol (13 cells, two independent experiments) or 2 nM Taxol (26 cells, two independent experiments). Scale bar represents 10 μm