Spindle Poisons and Cell Fate: A Tale of Two Pathways
Figure 2
Cells display a surprising amount of within-group variation in response to treatment with the spindle poison nocodazole
Population level analyses reveal the percentage of HeLa cells that survive (blue) or apoptose (white) following treatment with nocodazole. Analysis of individual cells reveals the large amount of variation in how the cells die (smaller pie). Only a small minority of HeLa cells treated with nocodazole die during the first mitotic arrest, which is the presumed mode by which spindle toxins bring about cell death. Cells that survive represent both survival in interphase after mitosis (8%) and survival after replicating their genomes but failing to complete mitosis, i.e. endocycling (55%).
