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Kim AJ, Miller SI, Greiner EC, Kettenbach AN, Griffin EE. PLK-1 regulates MEX-1 polarization in the C. elegans zygote. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.07.26.605193. [PMID: 39091813 PMCID: PMC11291152 DOI: 10.1101/2024.07.26.605193] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/04/2024]
Abstract
The one-cell C. elegans embryo undergoes an asymmetric cell division during which germline factors such as the RNA-binding proteins POS-1 and MEX-1 segregate to the posterior cytoplasm, leading to their asymmetric inheritance to the posterior germline daughter cell. Previous studies found that the RNA-binding protein MEX-5 recruits polo-like kinase PLK-1 to the anterior cytoplasm where PLK-1 inhibits the retention of its substrate POS-1, leading to POS-1 segregation to the posterior. In this study, we tested whether PLK-1 similarly regulates MEX-1 polarization. We find that both the retention of MEX-1 in the anterior and the segregation of MEX-1 to the posterior depend on PLK kinase activity and on the interaction between MEX-5 and PLK-1. Human PLK1 directly phosphorylates recombinant MEX-1 on 9 predicted PLK-1 sites in vitro, four of which were identified in previous phosphoproteomic analysis of C. elegans embryos. The introduction of alanine substitutions at these four PLK-1 phosphorylation sites (MEX-1(4A)) significantly weakened the inhibition of MEX-1 retention in the anterior, thereby weakening MEX-1 segregation to the posterior. In contrast, mutation of a predicted CDK1 phosphorylation site had no effect on MEX-1 retention or on MEX-1 segregation. MEX-1(4A) mutants are viable and fertile but display significant sterility and fecundity defects at elevated temperatures. Taken together with our previous findings, these findings suggest PLK-1 phosphorylation drives both MEX-1 and POS-1 polarization during the asymmetric division of the zygote.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amelia J. Kim
- Department of Biological Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover NH 03755
| | | | - Elora C. Greiner
- Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College, Hanover NH 03755
- Dartmouth Cancer Center, Lebanon NH 03755
| | - Arminja N. Kettenbach
- Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College, Hanover NH 03755
- Dartmouth Cancer Center, Lebanon NH 03755
| | - Erik E. Griffin
- Department of Biological Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover NH 03755
- School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry UK
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Perrier A, Guiglielmoni N, Naquin D, Gorrichon K, Thermes C, Lameiras S, Dammermann A, Schiffer PH, Brunstein M, Canman JC, Dumont J. Maternal inheritance of functional centrioles in two parthenogenetic nematodes. Nat Commun 2024; 15:6042. [PMID: 39025889 PMCID: PMC11258339 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-50427-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/14/2023] [Accepted: 07/09/2024] [Indexed: 07/20/2024] Open
Abstract
Centrioles are the core constituent of centrosomes, microtubule-organizing centers involved in directing mitotic spindle assembly and chromosome segregation in animal cells. In sexually reproducing species, centrioles degenerate during oogenesis and female meiosis is usually acentrosomal. Centrioles are retained during male meiosis and, in most species, are reintroduced with the sperm during fertilization, restoring centriole numbers in embryos. In contrast, the presence, origin, and function of centrioles in parthenogenetic species is unknown. We found that centrioles are maternally inherited in two species of asexual parthenogenetic nematodes and identified two different strategies for maternal inheritance evolved in the two species. In Rhabditophanes diutinus, centrioles organize the poles of the meiotic spindle and are inherited by both the polar body and embryo. In Disploscapter pachys, the two pairs of centrioles remain close together and are inherited by the embryo only. Our results suggest that maternally-inherited centrioles organize the embryonic spindle poles and act as a symmetry-breaking cue to induce embryo polarization. Thus, in these parthenogenetic nematodes, centrioles are maternally-inherited and functionally replace their sperm-inherited counterparts in sexually reproducing species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aurélien Perrier
- Université Paris Cité, CNRS, Institut Jacques Monod, F-75013, Paris, France
| | - Nadège Guiglielmoni
- Worm∼lab, Institute for Zoology, University of Cologne, Cologne, NRW, Germany
| | - Delphine Naquin
- Université Paris-Saclay, CEA, CNRS, Institute for Integrative Biology of the Cell (I2BC), 91198, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Kevin Gorrichon
- Centre de Référence, d'Innovation, d'eXpertise et de transfert (CRefIX), US 039 CEA/INRIA/INSERM, Evry, France
- Centre National de Recherche en Génomique Humaine (CNRGH), Institut de Biologie François Jacob, Direction de la Recherche Fondamentale, CEA, Evry, France
| | - Claude Thermes
- Université Paris-Saclay, CEA, CNRS, Institute for Integrative Biology of the Cell (I2BC), 91198, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Sonia Lameiras
- Institut Curie, PSL University, ICGex Next-Generation Sequencing Platform, 75005, Paris, France
| | - Alexander Dammermann
- Max Perutz Labs, Vienna Biocenter Campus (VBC), 1030, Vienna, Austria
- University of Vienna, Center for Molecular Biology, Department of Microbiology, Immunobiology and Genetics, 1030, Vienna, Austria
| | - Philipp H Schiffer
- Worm∼lab, Institute for Zoology, University of Cologne, Cologne, NRW, Germany
| | - Maia Brunstein
- Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, INSERM, Institut de l'Audition, F-75012, Paris, France
| | - Julie C Canman
- Columbia University Irving Medical Center; Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, New York, NY, 10032, USA
| | - Julien Dumont
- Université Paris Cité, CNRS, Institut Jacques Monod, F-75013, Paris, France.
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The people behind the papers - Nadia Manzi and Daniel Dickinson. Development 2024; 151:dev202889. [PMID: 38597429 DOI: 10.1242/dev.202889] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/11/2024]
Abstract
The mitotic kinase Aurora A has been shown to regulate the anterior-posterior polarity in developing Caenorhabditis elegans embryos. In a new study, Daniel Dickinson and colleagues find that Aurora A has temporally distinct roles in coordinating the localization of Partitioning defective (PAR) proteins to establish cell polarity during development. To find out more about the story behind the paper, we caught up with first author Nadia Manzi and corresponding author Daniel Dickinson, Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
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