Electron microscopy of microtubule cytoskeleton assembly in vitro

Abstract

Cell-free cytoplasm isolated from meiotic Xenopus egg extracts reconstitutes microtubule phenomena in vitro. These crude extracts assemble bipolar meiotic spindles and are readily fractionated for biochemical assays, providing a good tool to dissect molecular mechanism. We developed techniques for immunoelectron microscopy of microtubule structures assembled in perfusion chambers and in solution. © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014.