The microtubule aster formation and its role in nuclear envelope assembly around the sperm chromatin inXenopus egg extracts

Abstract

Nuclear envelope is a dynamic structure in the cell cycle. At the beginning of mitosis, nuclear envelope breaks down and its components disperse into the cytoplasm. At the end of mitosis, nuclear envelope reassembles using the dispersed components. Searching for the mechanisms of the nuclear disassembly and reassembly has for a long time been one of the key projects for cell biologists. In this report we show that microtubules take a role in the nuclear envelope assembly around the sperm chromatin inXenopus egg extracts. Microtubule cytoskeleton has been demonstrated to take roles in the transport of intracellular membranes such as Golgi and ER vesicles. We found that the nuclear envelope assembly needs functional microtubules. At the beginning of the nuclear assembly, microtubules nucleated to form a microtubule aster around the centrosome at the base of the sperm head. Using the microtubule drug colchicine to disrupt the microtubule nucleation, nuclear envelope reassembly was seriously inhibited. If the microtubules were stabilized by taxol, another microtubule drug, the nuclear envelope reassembly was also interfered, although a significantly large aster formed around the chromatin. Based on these observations, we propose that microtubules play an important role in the nuclear envelope reassembly maybe by transporting the nuclear envelope precursors to the chromatin surfaces.