Internal feedback circuits among MEX-5, MEX-6, and PLK-1 maintain faithful patterning in the Caenorhabditis elegans embryo.

ABSTRACT: Proteins become asymmetrically distributed in the one-cell Caenorhabditis elegans embryo thanks to reaction-diffusion mechanisms that are often entangled in complex feedback loops. Cortical polarity drives the enrichment of the RNA-binding proteins MEX-5 and MEX-6 in the anterior cytoplasm through concentration gradients. MEX-5 and MEX-6 promote the patterning of other cytoplasmic factors, including that of the anteriorly enriched mitotic polo-like kinase PLK-1, but also contribute to proper cortical polarity. The gradient of MEX-5 forms through a differential-diffusion mechanism. How MEX-6 establishes a gradient and how MEX-5 and MEX-6 regulate cortical polarity is not known. Here, we reveal that the two MEX proteins develop concentration asymmetries via similar mechanisms, but des

SUBMITTER: Vaudano AP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11670235 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature