The following antibodies were kindly provided: anti-a-tubulin by Dr E.Karsenti, anti-centrin (20H5) by Professor J.L.Salisbury (Sanders and Salisbury, 1994; Paoletti et al., 1996) , anti-Nek2 and anti-C-Nap1 by Professor E.Nigg (Fry et al., 1998a,b) , anti-myc and anti-gp27 by Dr T.Nilsson (Fu Èllekrug et al., 1999) and antibodies against the corresponding vaccinia proteins: A3L, A10L and L4R by Professor D.Hruby (Vanslyke and Hruby, 1994) , I1L by Professor P.Traktman (Klemperer et al., 1997) , A27L (C3) by Dr M.Esteban (Rodriguez et al., 1985) , A33R, A34R and A36R (Ro Èttger et al., 1999) . In addition, the following antibodies were obtained from commercial sources: anti-a-tubulin (N356) (Amersham International, UK), anti-acetylated a-tubulin (6-11B-1) (Sigma, USA), anti-g-tubulin (GTU-88; Sigma), anti-pericentrin and anti-TGN46 (BAbCO, USA), and rabbit IgG (Sigma). Actin was visualized with¯uorescently labelled phalloidin derivatives (Molecular Probes, USA).