Authors:

Aastha Lele

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About Paper:

In Caenorhabditis elegans, kinesin-1 (a plus-end-directed microtubule motor protein) is required for the oocyte meiotic spindle to be asymmetrically positioned. Asymmetric spindle position facilitates extrusion of half the chromosomes into a polar body.  However, the cargo that kinesin-1 binds to for moving the spindle is unknown. We hypothesize that the cargo that kinesin-1 binds to is the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), and that the process of kinesin-1 carrying ER along the microtubule pushes the spindle away from the oocyte center. To test this hypothesis, we replaced the cargo-binding domain of kinesin-1 with iLID, a protein that will bind SSPB only when illuminated with 488 nm light.  In addition, we fused SSPB to TMCO-1, a transmembrane Ca2+ ion channel residing in the ER.  If the ER is the cargo of kinesin-1 that is responsible for spindle positioning, we predict that this optogenetic pair will restore asymmetric spindle position in a kinesin-1 null background. Preliminary results indicate that this optogenetic pair indeed restores spindle asymmetry. We are working on increasing sample size and testing other organelles with a similar optogenetic approach.  A Systematic Content Review and Meta Analysis of the Sami and Russia from 2010-2015 Katharina Lenz

Source:

UC Davis / Molecular & Cellular Bio / 2023

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Co-authors:

Aastha Lele