Acentrosomal spindle assembly and maintenance in Caenorhabditis elegans oocytes requires a kinesin-12 nonmotor microtubule interaction domain.

ABSTRACT: During the meiotic divisions in oocytes, microtubules are sorted and organized by motor proteins to generate a bipolar spindle in the absence of centrosomes. In most organisms, kinesin-5 family members crosslink and slide microtubules to generate outward force that promotes acentrosomal spindle bipolarity. However, the mechanistic basis for how other kinesin families act on acentrosomal spindles has not been explored. We investigated this question in Caenorhabditis elegans oocytes, where kinesin-5 is not required to generate outward force and the kinesin-12 family motor KLP-18 instead performs this function. Here we use a combination of in vitro biochemical assays and in vivo mutant analysis to provide insight into the mechanism by which KLP-18 promotes acentrosomal spindle a

SUBMITTER: Wolff ID 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9635285 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature