Reverse-engineering forces responsible for dynamic clustering and spreading of multiple nuclei in developing muscle cells.

ABSTRACT: How cells position their organelles is a fundamental biological question. During Drosophila embryonic muscle development, multiple nuclei transition from being clustered together to splitting into two smaller clusters to spreading along the myotube's length. Perturbations of microtubules and motor proteins disrupt this sequence of events. These perturbations do not allow intuiting which molecular forces govern the nuclear positioning; we therefore used computational screening to reverse-engineer and identify these forces. The screen reveals three models. Two suggest that the initial clustering is due to nuclear repulsion from the cell poles, while the third, most robust, model poses that this clustering is due to a short-ranged internuclear attraction. All three models suggest that

SUBMITTER: Manhart A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7521854 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature