Hierarchy of spindle forces in prometaphase

In wild-type and PRC1-depleted cells during early prometaphase, reconstructed spindle forces show pole segregation is driven by interpolar-origin forces, with repulsive short-range and attractive long-range pole–chromosome interactions.

• Why it matters: Direct measurements of the forces that drive rapid chromosome congression and spindle pole segregation in prometaphase are lacking, limiting how spindle mechanics are understood.
• What they did: The authors tracked 3D trajectories of chromosomes and spindle poles in wild-type and PRC1-depleted cells during early prometaphase and reconstructed spindle forces from these movements.
• The result: The force model indicates chromosomes do not interact with each other beyond short-range steric repulsion, and it implies pole-pole segregation is robust to regional cellular variations and to the complex congression process.

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