I wish to draw the authors' attention to their citation of reference no. 14 (Sharp DJ, Brown HM, Kwon M, Rogers GC, Holland G, Scholey JM., MBC, 2000) to support the latter part of their statement that "Multipolar spindles have also been observed following Kinesin-5 gene disruption in higher plants and in invertebrate cells".
Sharp et al. were attempting to deplete the Drosophila kinesin-5, KLP61F in Drosophila embryos using antibody microinjection. They reported that 10–20% of all embryos observed immediately following microinjection showed massive defects in spindle structure. These defects consisted primarily of multipolar spindles or massive nuclear fallout, but they occurred with equal frequency in both control and experimental embryos, leading the authors to conclude that such defects represented non-specific effects of microinjection.
As a result, the formation of multipolar spindles has not, in fact, been observed in invertebrate cells following kinesin-5 gene disruption. Thus far, the phenomenon seems to have been observed only in rsw7 (kinesin-5) Arabidopsis thaliana.
Incorrectly cited work
1 September 2010
I wish to draw the authors' attention to their citation of reference no. 14 (Sharp DJ, Brown HM, Kwon M, Rogers GC, Holland G, Scholey JM., MBC, 2000) to support the latter part of their statement that "Multipolar spindles have also been observed following Kinesin-5 gene disruption in higher plants and in invertebrate cells".
Sharp et al. were attempting to deplete the Drosophila kinesin-5, KLP61F in Drosophila embryos using antibody microinjection. They reported that 10–20% of all embryos observed immediately following microinjection showed massive defects in spindle structure. These defects consisted primarily of multipolar spindles or massive nuclear fallout, but they occurred with equal frequency in both control and experimental embryos, leading the authors to conclude that such defects represented non-specific effects of microinjection.
As a result, the formation of multipolar spindles has not, in fact, been observed in invertebrate cells following kinesin-5 gene disruption. Thus far, the phenomenon seems to have been observed only in rsw7 (kinesin-5) Arabidopsis thaliana.
Thank you.
Competing interests
None declared