Question

In class, we discussed two drugs (Taxol and Nocodazole) that arrest cells in mitosis by inhibiting microtubule dynamics. You would like to know if MITO-STOP also blocks cell cycle progression by altering microtubule dynamics. Please suggest an in vitro experiment you could do to test the effects of MITO-STOP on microtubules.

Answer 1

Cell cycle includes interphase, Go, G1, S, G2 and mitosis phase. This experiment can be done on growing eukaryotic cells e.g. animal cell lines or yeast. Yeast is eukaryotic and grow with ease as bacteria grows in broth or solid media. Adding the MITO-STOP as specific conc in the broth will stop cell division and number of cells with respect to time will not increase. Generally turbidity of cell is a measure of cell growth in media and is in quantitative relation with absorbance at 660 nm in a spectrophotometer. A control group of media inoculated with yeast again but not added with MITO-STOP will show increase in absorbance with time

If experimenting on cell lines, confluence i.e. area of cells covering the surface will not be achieved (seen under inverted microscope) in comparison to control group (maximum 100% confluence but is characteristic of cell line).