Thread by @andimime

Our interdisciplinary work on the role of mechanochemical crosstalk in mitotic spindle orientation is finally out! cell.com/current-biolog… A collaboration between the @lab_baum, Salbreux Lab, @Franze_Lab, and Piel Lab
#openaccess @CurrentBiology

I would like to thank all the people involved and the community! @pragya_srivas @AgChaigne @zawforthewin @lanky_oscar @BaumBuzz
Here is a quick summary of our findings:
Animal cells round up when they divide in mitosis, but they are still able to orient their division axis..

..according to their shape prior to mitosis. Beautiful papers from @ManuelTHERY and others showed that this could be explained by a memory effect due to extrinsic cell-substrate adhesions that can pattern force generators at the cortex, which pull the mitotic spindle..

..at the right angle. In our paper we showed that the mitotic spindle and the force generators have a dynamic two-way crosstalk that produces beautiful monopolar spindle movements in flattened mitotic cells. Using a series of perturbations and physical modelling, we also showed..

..that these intrisic signals are sufficient to provide a memory of the cell shape prior to mitosis, to pattern the cortex during mitotic rounding, and to guide the axis of cell division.

If you have any questions or want to chat about this work - please get in touch! :)

Here is a series of videos showing our findings: cell.com/cms/10.1016/j.…