Here's a breakdown:
* Microtubules are long, hollow tubes made of the protein tubulin. They are part of the cytoskeleton, a network of fibers that gives a cell its shape and helps it move.
* During cell division (mitosis and meiosis), microtubules assemble into a structure called the mitotic spindle.
* The mitotic spindle attaches to the chromosomes at specialized regions called kinetochores.
* As the microtubules shorten, they pull the chromosomes apart, ensuring that each daughter cell receives a complete set of chromosomes.
So, while the entire mitotic spindle is involved in chromosome separation, the microtubules are the key structural components that do the actual pulling.
