Answer
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Both Taxol and colchicine disrupt the dynamic instability of microtubules, which is essential for proper mitosis.
- Colchicine prevents microtubule polymerization, so the mitotic spindle cannot form, and chromosomes cannot segregate.
- Taxol, although it stabilizes microtubules, prevents their depolymerization, which is equally critical because spindle microtubules must rapidly grow and shrink to capture and separate chromosomes.
In both cases, the mitotic spindle fails, arresting the cell in mitosis and ultimately triggering cell death, which is why both drugs are toxic to dividing cells despite having opposite molecular effects on microtubules.
