A force-balance model for centrosome positioning and spindle elongation during interphase and anaphase B

Abstract

A computational model in one dimension is proposed to position a single centrosome using astral microtubules (MTs) interacting with the cell cortex. The mechanism exploits mutually antagonistic pulling and pushing forces arising from the astral MTs’ binding to cortical dynein motors in the actin-rich cell cortex and their buckling while growing against the cell cortex, respectively. The underlying mechanism is extended to account for the elongation and positioning of the bipolar spindle during mitotic anaphase B. Besides astral MTs, the model for bipolar spindle involves interpolar microtubules (IPMTs). The composite model can predict spindle elongation and position under various circumstances. The outcome reveals that the bipolar spindle elongation, weakened by decreasing overlap between the antiparallel IPMTs in the spindle mid-zone, is recovered by the astral MTs. The one-dimensional models are extended in two dimensions to include the effect of cortical sliding of the astral MTs for studying the dynamics of the interphase centrosome and the anaphase B spindles in elongated cells. The results reveal that the dynamics in two dimensions stay qualitatively similar to the one dimension.