No abstract

Cilia have diverse roles in motility and sensory reception, and defects in cilia function contribute to ciliary diseases such as Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS). Intraflagellar transport (IFT) motors assemble and maintain cilia by transporting ciliary precursors, bound to protein complexes called IFT particles, from the base of the cilium to their site of incorporation at the distal tip. In Caenorhabditis elegans, this is accomplished by two IFT motors, kinesin-II and osmotic avoidance defective (OSM)-3 kinesin, which cooperate to form two sequential anterograde IFT pathways that build distinct parts of cilia. By observing the movement of fluorescent IFT motors and IFT particles along the cilia of numerous ciliary mutants, we identified three genes whose protein products mediate the functional coordination of these motors. The BBS proteins BBS-7 and BBS-8 are required to stabilize complexes of IFT particles containing both of the IFT motors, because IFT particles in bbs-7 and bbs-8 mutants break down into two subcomplexes, IFT-A and IFT-B, which are moved separately by kinesin-II and OSM-3 kinesin, respectively. A conserved ciliary protein, DYF-1, is specifically required for OSM-3 kinesin to dock onto and move IFT particles, because OSM-3 kinesin is inactive and intact IFT particles are moved by kinesin-II alone in dyf-1 mutants. These findings implicate BBS ciliary disease proteins and an OSM-3 kinesin activator in the formation of two IFT pathways that build functional cilia.

Cilia and flagella play important roles in many physiological processes, including cell and fluid movement, sensory perception, and development. The biogenesis and maintenance of cilia depend on intraflagellar transport (IFT), a motility process that operates bidirectionally along the ciliary axoneme. Disruption in IFT and cilia function causes several human disorders, including polycystic kidneys, retinal dystrophy, neurosensory impairment, and Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS). To uncover new ciliary components, including IFT proteins, we compared C. elegans ciliated neuronal and nonciliated cells through serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) and screened for genes potentially regulated by the ciliogenic transcription factor, DAF-19. Using these complementary approaches, we identified numerous candidate ciliary genes and confirmed the ciliated-cell-specific expression of 14 novel genes. One of these, C27H5.7a, encodes a ciliary protein that undergoes IFT. As with other IFT proteins, its ciliary localization and transport is disrupted by mutations in IFT and bbs genes. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the ciliary structural defect of C. elegans dyf-13(mn396) mutants is caused by a mutation in C27H5.7a. Together, our findings help define a ciliary transcriptome and suggest that DYF-13, an evolutionarily conserved protein, is a novel core IFT component required for cilia function.

Asymmetric positioning of the mitotic spindle before cytokinesis can produce different-sized daughter cells that have distinct fates. Here, we found an asymmetric division in the Caenorhabditis elegans Q neuroblast lineage that began with a centered spindle but generated different-sized daughters, the smaller (anterior) of which underwent apoptosis. During this division, more myosin II accumulated anteriorly, suggesting that asymmetric contractile forces might produce different-sized daughters. Indeed, partial inactivation of anterior myosin by chromophore-assisted laser inactivation created a more symmetric division and allowed the survival and differentiation of the anterior daughter. Thus, the balance of myosin activity on the two sides of a dividing cell can govern the size and fate of the daughters.Most somatic cell divisions equally partition the cytoplasm and produce equivalent daughters. Asymmetric cell divisions are used to generate distinct daughter cells that have different fates in development and in adult stem cell lineages (1,2). Asymmetric cell division has been best studied in the first embryonic cell division in Caenorhabditis elegans (3). Here, unequal dynein-mediated pulling forces in the anterior-posterior axis displace the spindle toward the posterior pole (3-5). The cleavage furrow then forms in the middle of the elongating anaphase spindle, but because the spindle is displaced, the cell is divided into unequal-size daughters (3,5). However, in Drosophila neuroblasts, asymmetric cell division begins with the spindle aligned in the middle of the cell (6-8). As anaphase progresses, the spindle elongates asymmetrically and the cytokinetic furrow shifts toward one side of the cell. However, the cellular mechanism responsible for this type of asymmetric cytokinesis is unknown.We developed fluorescence markers and live imaging methodologies to study asymmetric divisions in the C. elegans Q neuroblast lineage. Q neuroblasts undergo three rounds of division to make three distinct neurons and two apoptotic cells (Fig. 1A). In the second round, asymmetric divisions give rise to a large cell that continues to divide and differentiate and a small cell that undergoes apoptosis (Fig. 1A) (9).