Combined expertise in order to understand how centrosomes duplicate Collaboration Dr. Tapas Manna (IISSR TVM) – Dr. Elmar Schiebel (ZMBH, Uni Heidelberg)

The centrosome was discovered by T. Boveri in Würzburg more than 140 years ago. T. Boveri already suggested that centrosomes are somehow connected to the development of cancer which was confirmed by studies of the last two decades.

Over the many years, it became apparent that centrosomes are membraneless organelle that organize the spindle fibers, the microtubules, that are essential for chromosome segregation in mitosis. As DNA, centrosome duplicate once per cell cycle. The already exiting centrosome functions as platform for the assembly of a daughter. One of the first steps in centrosome duplication is the assembly of the so-called cartwheel consisting of the conserved protein Sas6. The cartwheel functions a blue print for the assembly of the centriole, the internal scaffold of centrosomes. It recruits the gamma-tubulin ring complex that subsequently organizes microtubules that form the outside wall of centrioles (the centriole microtubules do not function as spindle fibres). In this DBT/DFG jointly funded project by Dr. Manna and Dr. Schiebel combine their expertise on Sas6 and the gamma-tubulin ring complex in order to understand how centrosomes duplicate.