Enucleation of the C. elegans embryo revealed the mechanism of dynein-dependent spacing between microtubule asters

Abstract

The centrosome is a major microtubule-organizing center in animal cells. The intracellular positioning of the centrosomes is important for proper cellular function. One of the features of centrosome positioning is the spacing between centrosomes. The spacing activity is mediated by microtubules extending from the centrosomes; however, the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. To characterize the spacing activity in the Caenorhabditis elegans embryo, a genetic setup was developed to produce enucleated embryos. The centrosome duplicated multiple times in the enucleated embryo, which enabled us to characterize the chromosome-independent spacing activity between sister and non-sister centrosome pairs. We knocked down genes in the enucleated embryo and found that the timely spacing was dependent on cytoplasmic dynein. Based on these results, we propose a stoichiometric model of cortical and cytoplasmic pulling forces for the spacing between centrosomes. We also found a dynein-independent but non-muscle myosin II-dependent movement of the centrosomes in a later cell cycle phase. The dynein-dependent spacing mechanisms for positioning the centrosomes revealed in this study is likely functioning in the cell with nucleus and chromosomes, including the processes of centrosome separation and spindle elongation.