Caenorhabditis elegans oocyte meiotic spindle pole assembly requires microtubule severing and the calponin homology domain protein ASPM-1.

ABSTRACT: In many animals, including vertebrates, oocyte meiotic spindles are bipolar but assemble in the absence of centrosomes. Although meiotic spindle positioning in oocytes has been investigated extensively, much less is known about their assembly. In Caenorhabditis elegans, three genes previously shown to contribute to oocyte meiotic spindle assembly are the calponin homology domain protein encoded by aspm-1, the katanin family member mei-1, and the kinesin-12 family member klp-18. We isolated temperature-sensitive alleles of all three and investigated their requirements using live-cell imaging to reveal previously undocumented requirements for aspm-1 and mei-1. Our results indicate that bipolar but abnormal oocyte meiotic spindles assemble in aspm-1(-) embryos, whereas klp-18(-) and mei-1(-)

SUBMITTER: Connolly AA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3982995 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature