FIGURE 1:

Depletion of ALADIN from Drosophila S2 cells impairs spindle assembly and produces shorter spindles. (A) Cells stably expressing mCherry–α-tubulin were treated with a dsRNA targeting GFP or ALADIN and then imaged with an automated microscope. Example images from time series of treated cells. (B) The time between nuclear envelope breakdown and anaphase onset was measured for multiple cells (n = 15 control and 12 ALADIN depleted). (C) Cells treated with the indicated dsRNAs were fixed and stained to visualize α-tubulin and γ-tubulin, and spindle length was measured for >35 spindles for each condition. (D) Example images for the four dsRNA treatments (red, γ-tubulin; green, α-tubulin; blue, DAPI). Box-and-whisker plots: box middle line shows the median; bottom and top lines show lower and upper quartiles (25 and 75%). Whiskers extend to the 10th and 90th percentiles, and all outliers (dots) are shown. Scale bars, 5 μm. ***p < 0.003.