Kinesin-5-independent mitotic spindle assembly requires the antiparallel microtubule crosslinker Ase1 in fission yeast

Abstract

Bipolar spindle assembly requires a balance of kinesin 14 pulling and kinesin 5 pushing forces. Here, the authors show that in fission yeast, spindle formation can occur in the absence of kinesin 5 (Cut7) and 14 (Pkl1) but requires the microtubule-associated protein Ase1 for spindle bipolarity.