Acentrosomal spindle organization in C. elegans meiosis

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Thomas Müller-Reichert
• Subject Area: Cell Biology
• Term: from 2009 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 116471649

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.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1384: Mechanisms of Genome Haploidisation