Laser Ablation of Microtubule–Chromosome Attachment in Mouse Oocytes

: Laser ablation is a powerful tool to study forces within biological systems. This technique has been extensively used to study mitotic spindle formation and chromosome segregation. This chapter describes laser ablation of microtubule-chromosome attachments coupled to fluorescence live microscopy and quantitative analysis of individual chromosome movement after microtubule severing. This method allows to gain insight into the organization and dynamics of the meiotic spindle and chromosomes in metaphase I mouse oocytes.