Affiliation:
1. Department of Biology, Yeshiva University; New York, NY, USA
2. Department of Developmental and Molecular Biology and Department of Genetics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
Abstract
Gamete formation is key to survival of higher organisms. In male animals, spermatogenesis gives rise to interconnected spermatids that differentiate and individualize into mature sperm, each tightly enclosed by a plasma membrane. In Drosophila melanogaster, individualization of sister spermatids requires the formation of specialized actin cones that synchronously move along the sperm tails, removing inter-spermatid bridges and most of the cytoplasm. Here we show that Combover (Cmb), originally identified as an effector of Planar Cell Polarity (PCP) under control of Rho kinase, is essential for sperm individualization. cmb mutants are male sterile, with actin cones that fail to synchronously move along the flagella, despite being correctly formed and polarized initially. These defects are germline autonomous, independent of PCP genes, and can be rescued by wild-type Cmb, but not by a version of Cmb in which known Rho kinase phosphorylation sites are mutated. Furthermore, Cmb binds to the axonemal component Radial spoke protein 3, knockdown of which causes similar individualization defects, suggesting that Cmb coordinates the individualization machinery with the microtubular axoneme.
Funder
National Institute of General Medical Sciences
National Institutes of Health
Publisher
The Company of Biologists
Subject
Developmental Biology,Molecular Biology
Cited by
11 articles.
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