Abstract
The centrosome is a unique organelle: the semi-conservative nature of its duplication generates an inherent asymmetry between ‘mother’ and ‘daughter’ centrosomes, which differ in their age. This asymmetry has captivated many cell biologists, but its meaning has remained enigmatic. In the last two decades, many stem cell types have been shown to display stereotypical inheritance of either the mother or daughter centrosome. These observations have led to speculation that the mother and daughter centrosomes bear distinct information, contributing to differential cell fates during asymmetric cell divisions. This review summarizes recent progress and discusses how centrosome asymmetry may promote asymmetric fates during stem cell divisions.
Highlights
Since Boveri described and named it more than 100 years ago [1], the centrosome its has undergone its fair share of ups and downs
This oriented division is achieved by stereotypical centrosome positioning: in germline stem cell (GSC), the mother centrosome stays near the hub cells throughout the cell cycle, whereas the daughter centrosome migrates to the opposite side
Asymmetric microtubule-organizing centre (MTOC) activities can ensure correct spindle orientation: for example, in Drosophila male GSCs, the mother centrosome has higher MTOC activity and is stably anchored to the adherens junctions formed between the hub and GSCs, ensuring that a spindle pole is tethered at the hub, which in turn leads to perpendicular spindle orientation in mitosis [25]
Summary
Since Boveri described and named it more than 100 years ago [1], the centrosome (so named because it is in the centre of the cell) its has undergone its fair share of ups and downs. Many stem cell types have been reported to exhibit stereotypical inheritance of the mother or daughter centrosome, leading to a speculation that the centrosome may control asymmetric cell divisions via cell polarization and potentially as a carrier of critical information that can influence the cell fates. With this ‘centrosome-centric’ view, we summarize recent progress in understanding centrosome asymmetries in the context of development, in the context of asymmetric stem cell divisions. Royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rsob Open Biol. 11: 200314 mitotic exit/G1 disengagement mother centriole daughter centriole
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