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Centrioles are cylindrical, ninefold symmetrical structures with peripheral triplet microtubules strictly required to template cilia and flagella. The highly conserved protein SAS-6 constitutes the center of the cartwheel assembly that scaffolds centrioles early in their biogenesis. We determined the x-ray structure of the amino-terminal domain of SAS-6 from zebrafish, and we show that recombinant SAS-6 self-associates in vitro into assemblies that resemble cartwheel centers. Point mutations are consistent with the notion that centriole formation in vivo depends on the interactions that define the self-assemblies observed here. Thus, these interactions are probably essential to the structural organization of cartwheel centers.

Original publication

DOI

10.1126/science.1199325

Type

Journal article

Journal

Science

Publication Date

04/03/2011

Volume

331

Pages

1196 - 1199

Keywords

Amino Acid Motifs, Animals, Cell Cycle Proteins, Cell Line, Tumor, Centrioles, Centrosome, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone, Crystallography, X-Ray, Flagella, Humans, Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions, Models, Molecular, Mutant Proteins, Point Mutation, Protein Multimerization, Protein Structure, Quaternary, Protein Structure, Tertiary, Recombinant Proteins, Zebrafish, Zebrafish Proteins