Winner of the 2nd prize in the “Protein Science in Images” 2023 competition

Author

Name: Romain Devillers
Affiliation: ULAVAL
Contest year: 2023, Winner of the 2nd prize of the “La science des protéines imagée” contest.

Titre de la photo

Mitosis = Last stage of cell division

Description de la photo

The aim of this experiment is to visualize the separation of DNA between 2 daughter cells at the end of cell division. During this stage (mitosis), DNA is condensed into chromosomes (orange), and their migration is ensured by the microtubule network (white) that links each chromosome to its correct side. This link is crucial, because if it is altered, the DNA content of the 2 daughter cells will not be equal, resulting in the loss or gain of certain genes. This can lead to their transformation into cancer cells. For photos A, B, C , we used antibodies against different proteins: anti-tubulin to mark microtubules (white), anti-top2A (essential for maintaining chromosome architecture) to mark chromosomes (orange) and anti-KI-67 (surrounding chromosomes) (green, photo C).