Abstract

The centrosome is the major microtubule-organising centre in animal cells and as their name suggests, they have been regarded as playing a central role in many aspects of cellular organisation and morphology such as cell shape, polarity and cell division. Cells begin the cell cycle with exactly one centrosome which is composed of a pair of orthogonal, cylindrical centrioles (termed the mother and daughter centriole) surrounded by an amorphous protein mass called the pericentriolar material (PCM). Specifying a single site on the mother centriole for the formation of the daughter centriole is essential to avoid the growth of multiple daughters, which leads to centrosome overduplication and will ultimately result in aneuploidy and tumourgenesis. Some questions remain unanswered; does the daughter centriole form at a specific predefined location on the mother centriole? If so, what defines this site? Or does the daughter centriole grow out randomly from any side of the mother centriole? In this work, I attempt to address and uncover the answers to some of these questions using live cell imaging in Drosophila embryos. The results of which will help us understand how normal centriole duplication is regulated.