Preventing premature interactions between microtubules and protein-based structures called kinetochores ensures that chromosomes are segregated by meiosis rather than mitosis in reproductive cells.

An interaction between two proteins enables the spindle—the structure that segregates chromosome pairs during mitosis—to change size as cells divide.

The motor domains of dynein are sufficient to crosslink microtubules and slide them antiparallel to each other.

Structural analyses of the centriole proteins CPAP and STIL identify domains that are critical for centriole formation and provide a structural explanation for a mutation that causes human microcephaly.

The spindle assembly protein Bub3 recruits the checkpoint kinase Bub1 to kinetochores by binding to phosphorylated MELT repeats in the kinetochore subunit Knl1.

During meiosis, budding yeast use a checkpoint involving the protein Mec1 to prevent the formation of double-strand breaks in DNA that has not completed replication.

A newly characterized calcium-activated chloride channel has been implicated in the immune system of Drosophila, shedding light on an enigmatic family of transmembrane proteins that are ubiquitous in nature.