Affiliation:
1. Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Center for Cell Dynamics, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, 725 N. Wolfe Street, PCTB 706, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
Abstract
Polarization of the C. elegans zygote is initiated by ECT-2-dependent cortical flows, which mobilize the anterior PAR proteins (PAR-3, PAR-6 and PKC-3) away from the future posterior end of the embryo marked by the sperm centrosome. Here, we demonstrate the existence of a second, parallel and redundant pathway that can polarize the zygote in the absence of ECT-2-dependent cortical flows. This second pathway depends on the polarity protein PAR-2. We show that PAR-2 localizes to the cortex nearest the sperm centrosome even in the absence of cortical flows. Once on the cortex, PAR-2 antagonizes PAR-3-dependent recruitment of myosin, creating myosin flows that transport the anterior PAR complex away from PAR-2 in a positive-feedback loop. We propose that polarity in the C. elegans zygote is initiated by redundant ECT-2- and PAR-2-dependent mechanisms that lower PAR-3 levels locally, triggering a positive-feedback loop that polarizes the entire cortex.
Publisher
The Company of Biologists
Subject
Developmental Biology,Molecular Biology
Cited by
108 articles.
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