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Published 7 June 2004. doi:10.1083/jcb.200402130
The Rockefeller University Press, 0021-9525 $8.00
JCB, Volume 165, Number 5, 673-683
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Article

The Drosophila pericentrin-like protein is essential for cilia/flagella function, but appears to be dispensable for mitosis



Maruxa Martinez-Campos1, Renata Basto1, James Baker2, Maurice Kernan2, and Jordan W. Raff1

1 Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute, Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1QR, England, UK
2 Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY 11794

Address correspondence to Jordan W. Raff, Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute, Tennis Court Rd., Cambridge CB2 1QR, England, UK. Tel.: (44) 1223-334114. Fax: (44) 1223-334089. email: j.raff{at}welc.cam.ac.uk

Centrosomes consist of a pair of centrioles surrounded by an amorphous pericentriolar material (PCM). Proteins that contain a Pericentrin/AKAP450 centrosomal targeting (PACT) domain have been implicated in recruiting several proteins to the PCM. We show that the only PACT domain protein in Drosophila (the Drosophila pericentrin-like protein [D-PLP]) is associated with both the centrioles and the PCM, and is essential for the efficient centrosomal recruitment of all six PCM components that we tested. Surprisingly, however, all six PCM components are eventually recruited to centrosomes during mitosis in d-plp mutant cells, and mitosis is not dramatically perturbed. Although viable, d-plp mutant flies are severely uncoordinated, a phenotype usually associated with defects in mechanosensory neuron function. We show that the sensory cilia of these neurons are malformed and the neurons are nonfunctional in d-plp mutants. Moreover, the flagella in mutant sperm are nonmotile. Thus, D-PLP is essential for the formation of functional cilia and flagella in flies.

Key Words: PACT domain; centrosome; centriole; Drosophila; mitosis

M. Martinez-Campos and R. Basto contributed equally to this paper.

The online version of this article includes supplemental material.


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