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Cell Cycle 2020 Dec 15;19(24):3419-3436. Epub 2020 Dec 15.

Laboratory of Metabolism, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health , Bethesda, MD, USA.

Polo-like kinase 4 (Plk4) is a key regulator of centriole biogenesis. Studies have shown that Plk4 undergoes dynamic relocalization from a ring-like pattern around a centriole to a dot-like morphology at the procentriole assembly site and this event is central for inducing centriole biogenesis. However, the detailed mechanisms underlying Plk4's capacity to drive its symmetry-breaking ring-to-dot relocalization remain largely unknown. Read More

Dev Biol 2021 Mar 4;471:10-17. Epub 2020 Dec 4.

Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, France. Electronic address:

Centriole amplification in multiciliated cells occurs in a pseudo-cell cycle regulated process that typically utilizes a poorly characterized molecularly dense structure called the deuterosome. We identified the centrosomal protein Cep70 as a novel deuterosome-associated protein that forms a complex with other deuterosome proteins, CCDC78 and Deup1. Cep70 dynamically associates with deuterosomes during centriole amplification in the ciliated epithelia of Xenopus embryos. Read More

Elife 2020 09 23;9. Epub 2020 Sep 23.

Life Science Institute, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Michigan Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States.

Asymmetrically dividing stem cells often show asymmetric behavior of the mother versus daughter centrosomes, whereby the self-renewing stem cell selectively inherits the mother or daughter centrosome. Although the asymmetric centrosome behavior is widely conserved, its biological significance remains largely unclear. Here, we show that Alms1a, a homolog of the human ciliopathy gene Alstrom syndrome, is enriched on the mother centrosome in male germline stem cells (GSCs). Read More

Open Biol 2020 08 19;10(8):200102. Epub 2020 Aug 19.

Laboratory of Metabolism, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.

The centrosome, a unique membraneless multiprotein organelle, plays a pivotal role in various cellular processes that are critical for promoting cell proliferation. Faulty assembly or organization of the centrosome results in abnormal cell division, which leads to various human disorders including cancer, microcephaly and ciliopathy. Recent studies have provided new insights into the stepwise self-assembly of two pericentriolar scaffold proteins, Cep63 and Cep152, into a near-micrometre-scale higher-order structure whose architectural properties could be crucial for proper execution of its biological function. Read More

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2020 08 27;117(32):19254-19265. Epub 2020 Jul 27.

Department of Cardiology, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115;

The appropriate arrangement of myonuclei within skeletal muscle myofibers is of critical importance for normal muscle function, and improper myonuclear localization has been linked to a variety of skeletal muscle diseases, such as centronuclear myopathy and muscular dystrophies. However, the molecules that govern myonuclear positioning remain elusive. Here, we report that skeletal muscle-specific CIP (sk-CIP) is a regulator of nuclear positioning. Read More