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Pins is not required for spindle orientation in the Drosophila wing disc.

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Lovegrove, Holly E 
Kujawiak, Izabela 
Dawney, Nicole S 
Zhu, Jinwei 

Abstract

In animal cells, mitotic spindles are oriented by the dynein/dynactin motor complex, which exerts a pulling force on astral microtubules. Dynein/dynactin localization depends on Mud/NUMA, which is typically recruited to the cortex by Pins/LGN. In Drosophila neuroblasts, the Inscuteable/Baz/Par-6/aPKC complex recruits Pins apically to induce vertical spindle orientation, whereas in epithelial cells Dlg recruits Pins laterally to orient the spindle horizontally. Here we investigate division orientation in the Drosophila imaginal wing disc epithelium. Live imaging reveals that spindle angles vary widely during prometaphase and metaphase, and therefore do not reliably predict division orientation. This finding prompted us to re-examine mutants that have been reported to disrupt division orientation in this tissue. Loss of Mud misorients divisions, but Inscuteable expression and aPKC, dlg and pins mutants have no effect. Furthermore, Mud localizes to the apical-lateral cortex of the wing epithelium independently of both Pins and cell cycle stage. Thus, Pins is not required in the wing disc because there are parallel mechanisms for Mud localization and hence spindle orientation, making it a more robust system than in other epithelia.

Description

Keywords

Drosophila, Epithelia, Mud/NuMA, Pins/LGN, Spindle orientation, Animals, Cell Cycle Proteins, Cell Division, Cytoskeletal Proteins, Drosophila Proteins, Drosophila melanogaster, Guanine Nucleotide Dissociation Inhibitors, Imaginal Discs, Mutation, Signal Transduction, Spindle Apparatus, Wings, Animal

Journal Title

Development

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0950-1991
1477-9129

Volume Title

Publisher

The Company of Biologists
Sponsorship
Wellcome Trust (092096/Z/10/Z)
Wellcome Trust (080007/Z/06/Z)
Cancer Research Uk (None)
This work was supported by a Wellcome Trust Principal Fellowship to DStJ [080007] and by core support from the Wellcome Trust [092096] and Cancer Research UK [A14492]. DTB was supported by a Marie Curie Fellowship and the Wellcome Trust. HEL was supported by a Herchel Smith Studentship.