In collaboration with Renata Basto’s lab (Curie Institute, France) and Gregory Rogers’ lab (University of Arizona, USA), we have published a new paper in Developmental Cell.

In this study, we showed how the centrosome components, Plk4 and Spd2, direct the orientation of mitotic spindle by asymmetrically regulating the two centrosomes during the asymmetric cell division of the Drosophila neural stem cell. Since mutations in centrosome components are known to be involved in various human diseases, such as microcephaly, dwarfism and cancer, and centrosome components including Plk4 and Spd2 are conserved between Drosophila and human, our findings may provide molecular basis of the pathology of those diseases and may pave a new therapeutic route against them.

Our study also showed that APC/C-Fzr plays a role in the regulation of the centrosome asymmetry, downstream of Spd2. It is crucial to uncover the APC/C substrate that is involved in this process, which will be one of our future goals.