Figure 2.

Hexylene glycol promotes spindle expansion. Hexylene glycol [2% (vol/vol)] was added to cycled spindles from a 20% stock in water immediately before imaging. (A) Polarization images from a time-lapse sequence. Elapsed time shown in minutes and seconds. Hexylene glycol was added ∼1 min before the first time point. Note the growth in spindle length and width. Time elapsed shown as minutes:seconds. Length of time box, 10 μm. See Movie M1 (B) Spindle length as a function of time after addition of hexylene glycol alone (2%; black circles), hexylene glycol plus AMPPNP (1.5 mM; open squares), or hexylene glycol plus monastrol (400 μM) and p50 dynamitin (0.9 mg/ml; gray diamonds). (C) Spinning disk confocal fluorescence images of a spindle containing speckle level tubulin to which 2% hexylene glycol has been added. The line in the second panel was used to make the kymograph in D. See Movie M2. Bar, 5 μm. (D) Kymograph through the upper pole of the spindle shown in C. Time is vertical, distance along the line horizontal. Note the movement of the pole away from the spindle equator, which is to the right in the panel. Note also that many thin lines, which are speckle trajectories, parallel the movement of the pole (black lines highlight examples). Near the equator, speckles also are moving in the other direction (white line), in parallel with the opposite pole.