Fig. 4.

Decreased MEI-1 degradation during meiosis leads to shorter meiotic metaphase spindles. C. elegans meiotic spindles initially maintain a constant length during metaphase I and metaphase II (Yang et al., 2003). However, just prior to anaphase they shorten and rotate from parallel to perpendicular to the cortex. The constant lengths of metaphase I and metaphase II spindles prior to shortening and their lengths at rotation were determined from time-lapse sequences of GFP: tubulin in both wild-type and mei-1(ct46) embryos in utero. Representative images of metaphase spindles (scale bar, 5 μm) and average metaphase spindle lengths are shown and tabular data are presented +/− the standard deviation. n =the number of individual spindles used to determine each average.