One of the questions I got wrong on the assessment test was one about the drug Taxol and its role in mitosis. Although I had heard about this drug before, I got the question wrong because I thought it would inhibit anaphase and not necessarily the mitotic spindle. Because I didn't really understand the mechanism that makes Taxol work, I wanted to research it a little more.


Taxol, an anti-cancer drug, is isolated from the Pacific Yew Tree. It was originally isolated from the bark but was found in small amounts in the needles and cones as well. The relative amount able to be isolated from these trees was fairly minute and therefore many trees were used to get enough for one patient's treatment.


A couple of the cancers that taxol can be used to treat include breast cancer and lung cancer. The way Taxol works is to inhibit the cell division and growth of the cancer cells. It affects the microtubules involved in mitosis and can therefore inhibit mitosis of the cells.

Taxol is fairly expensive to extract and purify from the Pacific Yew Tree. Many different researchers have been trying to figure out new ways to synthesize this important drug and to make it more available to the general population.


In metaphase of mitosis, there are spindle fibers that attach to the centromeres of the chromosomes so that the chromatids can be moved to opposite poles during anaphase. When taxol is applied to the cells the spindle fibers are interrupted and the cell remains in metaphase. After the cell is in metaphase for a while, apoptosis occurs and the cell dies. This is why taxol is such a good cancer treatment because it can inhibit cell division and eventually kills the cancer cells. The end. :)