Temporal and Dimensional Scaling of Mitotic Spindle Assembly in Embryos: Conserved and Adaptive Mechanisms – MTDiSco

How organisms, cells and intracellular structures adapt their sizes relative to each other is a fundamental and fascinating question in biology. The mitotic spindle, a self-organized and dynamic structure built from microtubules and that aligns and partitions chromosomes during cell division, has the remarkable capacity to adapt its length to cellular dimensions during the successive reductive cleavages of early embryos. I recently found that the assembly rate of microtubules scales with cell size, which sets both spindle length and assembly duration during early embryonic development. However, the mechanisms underlying this adaptation and the biological significance of this scaling remain elusive. I thus propose a multi-scale and interdisciplinary approach to shed light on the molecular mechanisms governing microtubule and mitotic spindle scaling, address its conservation in metazoans and unravel its physiological and developmental significance.