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Tubulin nucleotide status controls Sas-4-dependent pericentriolar material recruitment

Nature Cell Biology volume 14, pages 865–873 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

Regulated centrosome biogenesis is required for accurate cell division and for maintaining genome integrity1. Centrosomes consist of a centriole pair surrounded by a protein network known as pericentriolar material1 (PCM). PCM assembly is a tightly regulated, critical step that determines the size and capability of centrosomes2,3,4. Here, we report a role for tubulin in regulating PCM recruitment through the conserved centrosomal protein Sas-4. Tubulin directly binds to Sas-4; together they are components of cytoplasmic complexes of centrosomal proteins5,6. A Sas-4 mutant, which cannot bind tubulin, enhances centrosomal protein complex formation and has abnormally large centrosomes with excessive activity. These results suggest that tubulin negatively regulates PCM recruitment. Whereas tubulin–GTP prevents Sas-4 from forming protein complexes, tubulin–GDP promotes it. Thus, the regulation of PCM recruitment by tubulin depends on its GTP/GDP-bound state. These results identify a role for tubulin in regulating PCM recruitment independent of its well-known role as a building block of microtubules7. On the basis of its guanine-bound state, tubulin can act as a molecular switch in PCM recruitment.

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Figure 1: Tubulin is present in each Sas-4 complex type.
Figure 2: Sas-4 is essential for recruiting S- γ-tubulin complexes to centrosomes.
Figure 3: Tubulin negatively regulates PCM recruitment.
Figure 4: Tubulin regulates Sas-4 complex formation.
Figure 5: GAP and guanine exchange activities in PCM recruitment.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank J. Iwasa for scientific illustrations; T. Mitchision A. Johnson, I. Cheeseman and J. Malicki for scientific discussions; T. Kaufman, J. Raff, B. Raynaud-Messina and T. K. Tang (Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Taipei, Taiwan) for reagents; R. Reed laboratory (Harvard Medical School, USA), F. Eric, A. Hari, R. Rodriguez for technical help with biophysical experiments; E. Koundakjian for scientific editing and discussions; and electron microscopy facility staff at HMS for help with electron microscopy analyses. This work was supported by a grant (R01GM098394) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.

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  1. Yiu-Cheung Frederick Chim, Andrew Ha and Marcus L. Basiri: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA

    Jayachandran Gopalakrishnan, Yiu-Cheung Frederick Chim, Andrew Ha, Marcus L. Basiri & Tomer Avidor-Reiss

  2. Cell Biology and Physiology Center, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA

    Dorothy A. Lerit & Nasser M. Rusan

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  1. Jayachandran Gopalakrishnan
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Contributions

J.G. and T.A.R. conceived the project. J.G. performed most of the experiments described herein. T.A-R. supervised the project. Y-F.C. performed phase and electron microscopy analyses. A.H. performed biochemical complex analyses. M.L.B. generated constructs and took part in the biochemical purification of recombinant proteins. D.A.L. and N.M.R. advised on and discussed larval brain analyses.

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Correspondence to Tomer Avidor-Reiss.

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Gopalakrishnan, J., Frederick Chim, YC., Ha, A. et al. Tubulin nucleotide status controls Sas-4-dependent pericentriolar material recruitment. Nat Cell Biol 14, 865–873 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb2527

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