Acentrosomal spindle organization in C. elegans meiosis

雌性减数分裂包括双极纺锤体的形成和染色体的定向，以及在中期到后期的过渡期微管细胞骨架的特征性重组，为染色体/染色单体分离做准备。我们正在使用线虫的早期胚胎作为模型系统来回答这个问题，如何在缺乏“经典”微管组织中心（MTOC）的环境中实现雌性生殖系的基因组单倍体化。对于SPP的第二个资助期，我们建议开发整个减数分裂纺锤体的3-D模型。此外，我们建议进一步表征驱动蛋白样蛋白家族成员耗竭对纺锤体组织的影响。应用这种系统的光学显微镜和电子断层扫描方法，我们计划建立一个C.优雅

Female meiosis involves bipolar spindle formation and chromosome orientation, as well as a charac-teristic reorganization of the microtubule cytoskeleton at the metaphase-toanaphase transition in preparation for chromosome/chromatid segregation. We are using the early embryo of the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans as a model system to answer the question, how genome haploidization in the female germ line can be achieved in an environment lacking a ‘classic’ microtubule-organizing center (MTOC). For the second period of funding of the SPP we propose to develop 3-D models of whole meiotic spindles. In addition, we propose to further characterize the effect of depletion of kinesinlike protein family members on spindle organization. Applying such a systematic light microscopy and electron tomography approach, we plan to develop a mechanistic model of acentrosomal spindle assembly in C. elegans.