Microtubules are tube-like polymers that play an important role in cell division. They form the spindle, a microtubule assembly that segregates the chromosomes. One important method for investigating microtubules in cells is electron tomography. Thick (300nm) serial sections of cells are prepared for electron microscopy and imaged on a CCD camera. With the use of image processing techniques, we are able to automatically extract the centerlines of microtubules within a section. In this project we will develop methods and software for a quantitative analysis of full mitotic spindles. These methods will allow joining electron tomograms and extracted microtubule centerlines within (in xy) and across (z) physical sections to create a geometric model of the entire spindle, which is then visually and quantitatively analyzed.

Publications

2023
Serial-section electron tomography and quantitative analysis of the microtubule organization in 3D-reconstructed mitotic spindles Bio-protocol, 13(20), 2023 Robert Kiewisz, Daniel Baum, Thomas Müller-Reichert, Gunar Fabig BibTeX
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Reconstruction and Analysis of the Microtubule Spindle Using Electron Tomography
2022
MCRS1 modulates the heterogeneity of microtubule minus-end morphologies in mitotic spindles Molecular Biology of the Cell, 34(1), 2022 Alejandra Laguillo-Diego, Robert Kiewisz, Carlos Martí-Gómez, Daniel Baum, Thomas Müller-Reichert, Isabelle Vernos BibTeX
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Reconstruction and Analysis of the Microtubule Spindle Using Electron Tomography
Three-dimensional structure of kinetochore-fibers in human mitotic spindles eLife, Vol.11, p. e75459, 2022 Robert Kiewisz, Gunar Fabig, William Conway, Daniel Baum, Daniel Needleman, Thomas Müller-Reichert BibTeX
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Reconstruction and Analysis of the Microtubule Spindle Using Electron Tomography
2021
Microtubule reorganization during female meiosis in C. elegans eLife, Vol.10, p. e58903, 2021 Ina Lantzsch, Che-Hang Yu, Yu-Zen Chen, Vitaly Zimyanin, Hossein Yazdkhasti, Norbert Lindow, Erik Szentgyoergyi, Ariel M Pani, Steffen Prohaska, Martin Srayko, Sebastian Fürthauer, Stefanie Redemann BibTeX
DOI
Reconstruction and Analysis of the Microtubule Spindle Using Electron Tomography
Semi-automatic stitching of filamentous structures in image stacks from serial-section electron tomography Journal of Microscopy, 284(1), pp. 25-44, 2021 Norbert Lindow, Florian Brünig, Vincent J. Dercksen, Gunar Fabig, Robert Kiewisz, Stefanie Redemann, Thomas Müller-Reichert, Steffen Prohaska, Daniel Baum BibTeX
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Reconstruction and Analysis of the Microtubule Spindle Using Electron Tomography
2020
Semi-automatic stitching of filamentous structures in image stacks from serial-section electron tomography bioRxiv, 2020 Norbert Lindow, Florian Brünig, Vincent J. Dercksen, Gunar Fabig, Robert Kiewisz, Stefanie Redemann, Thomas Müller-Reichert, Steffen Prohaska, Daniel Baum BibTeX
DOI
Reconstruction and Analysis of the Microtubule Spindle Using Electron Tomography
Sperm-specific meiotic chromosome segregation in C. elegans eLife, Vol.9, p. e50988, 2020 Gunar Fabig, Robert Kiewisz, Norbert Lindow, James A. Powers, Vanessa Cota, Luis J. Quintanilla, Jan Brugués, Steffen Prohaska, Diana S. Chu, Thomas Müller-Reichert BibTeX
DOI
Reconstruction and Analysis of the Microtubule Spindle Using Electron Tomography
2019
Semi-automatic Stitching of Serial Section Image Stacks with Filamentous Structures ZIB-Report 19-30 Norbert Lindow, Florian Brünig, Vincent J. Dercksen, Gunar Fabig, Robert Kiewisz, Stefanie Redemann, Thomas Müller-Reichert, Steffen Prohaska PDF
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Reconstruction and Analysis of the Microtubule Spindle Using Electron Tomography
2018
A switch in microtubule orientation during C. elegans meiosis Current Biology, 2018 (preprint available as ZIB-Report 18-34) Stefanie Redemann, Ina Lantzsch, Norbert Lindow, Steffen Prohaska, Martin Srayko, Thomas Müller-Reichert PDF (ZIB-Report)
BibTeX
DOI
Reconstruction and Analysis of the Microtubule Spindle Using Electron Tomography
Quantification of three-dimensional spindle architecture Methods in Cell Biology Part B, Academic Press, pp. 45-64, 2018 (preprint available as ZIB-Report 18-07) Norbert Lindow, Stefanie Redemann, Florian Brünig, Gunar Fabig, Thomas Müller-Reichert, Steffen Prohaska PDF (ZIB-Report)
BibTeX
DOI
Reconstruction and Analysis of the Microtubule Spindle Using Electron Tomography
Supervised Classification of Microtubule Ends: An Evaluation of Machine Learning Approaches Master's thesis, Freie Universität Berlin, Daniel Baum, Norbert Lindow (Advisors), 2018 Felix Herter PDF
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Reconstruction and Analysis of the Microtubule Spindle Using Electron Tomography
2017
C. elegans chromosomes connect to centrosomes by anchoring into the spindle network Nature Communications, 8(15288), 2017 Stefanie Redemann, Johannes Baumgart, Norbert Lindow, Michael Shelley, Ehssan Nazockdast, Andrea Kratz, Steffen Prohaska, Jan Brugués, Sebastian Fürthauer, Thomas Müller-Reichert BibTeX
DOI
Reconstruction and Analysis of the Microtubule Spindle Using Electron Tomography
2015
Reconstruction of Microtubule Centerlines from Electron Tomograms Doctoral thesis, Freie Universität Berlin, Knut Reinert (Advisor), 2015 Britta Weber BibTeX
Reconstruction and Analysis of the Microtubule Spindle Using Electron Tomography
2014
Automated stitching of microtubule centerlines across serial electron tomograms PLoS ONE, p. e113222, 2014 (preprint available as ZIB-Report 14-41) Britta Weber, Erin M. Tranfield, Johanna L. Höög, Daniel Baum, Claude Antony, Tony Hyman, Jean-Marc Verbavatz, Steffen Prohaska PDF (ZIB-Report)
BibTeX
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Reconstruction and Analysis of the Microtubule Spindle Using Electron Tomography
The Segmentation of Microtubules in Electron Tomograms Using Amira Mitosis: Methods and Protocols, pp. 261-278, Springer, 2014 Stefanie Redemann, Britta Weber, Marit Möller, Jean-Marc Verbavatz, Anthony Hyman, Daniel Baum, Steffen Prohaska, Thomas Müller-Reichert BibTeX
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Reconstruction and Analysis of the Microtubule Spindle Using Electron Tomography
2012
Automated tracing of microtubules in electron tomograms of plastic embedded samples of Caenorhabditis elegans embryos Journal of Structural Biology, 178(2), pp. 129-138, 2012 Britta Weber, Garrett Greenan, Steffen Prohaska, Daniel Baum, Hans-Christian Hege, Thomas Müller-Reichert, Anthony Hyman, Jean-Marc Verbavatz BibTeX
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Reconstruction and Analysis of the Microtubule Spindle Using Electron Tomography
2011
Fast Tracing of Microtubule Centerlines in Electron Tomograms BioVis 2011 Abstracts, 1st IEEE Symposium on Biological Data Visualization, 2011 Britta Weber, Marit Möller, Jean-Marc Verbavatz, Daniel Baum, Hans-Christian Hege, Steffen Prohaska BibTeX
Reconstruction and Analysis of the Microtubule Spindle Using Electron Tomography