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Asymmetric cell division: recent developments and their implications for tumour biology

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology volume 11, pages 849–860 (2010)Cite this article

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Key Points

  • Asymmetric cell division involves the segregation of cytoplasmic determinants into one of the two daughter cells. Considerable progress has been made in understanding this important biological process during the past 10 years.

  • Cytoplasmic determinants localize asymmetrically because they are differentially modified or associate with different cytoplasmic components on the two opposing ends of a cell.

  • Centrosomes induce the break in symmetry and initiate polarization in the one-cell Caenorhabditis elegans embryo. In Drosophila melanogaster neuroblasts, centrosomes maintain polarity over multiple cell cycles.

  • α-subunits of heterotrimeric G proteins form complexes with microtubule-binding proteins to regulate microtubule–cell membrane attachment and position mitotic spindles. This determines the orientation of division and the size of daughter cells.

  • Defects in asymmetric cell division can lead to tumour formation when they occur in stem cells.

Abstract

The ability of cells to divide asymmetrically is essential for generating diverse cell types during development. The past 10 years have seen tremendous progress in our understanding of this important biological process. We have learned that localized phosphorylation events are responsible for the asymmetric segregation of cell fate determinants in mitosis and that centrosomes and microtubules play important parts in this process. The relevance of asymmetric cell division for stem cell biology has added a new dimension to the field, and exciting connections between asymmetric cell division and tumorigenesis have begun to emerge.

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Figure 1: Models for asymmetric cell division.
Figure 2: Asymmetric segregation of protein determinants.
Figure 3: Par proteins and centrosomes establish cortical polarity in Drosophila melanogaster neuroblasts.
Figure 4: Three ways to generate different daughter cell sizes.
Figure 5: Asymmetric cell division and tumour formation.

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Acknowledgements

I thank all the members of my laboratory for fruitful and stimulating discussions. My laboratory is funded by the Austrian Academy of Science, the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), The European Research Council (ERC) and the European Union Seventh Framework Programme grant EuroSyStem.

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  1. Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Science (IMBA), Doktor Bohr-Gasse 3, 1030, Vienna, Austria

    Juergen A. Knoblich

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Glossary

Centrosome

(Also called the microtubule-organizing centre or spindle pole). A structure that nucleates microtubules and is important for signalling processes.

Neuroblast

A D. melanogaster neural progenitor cell that generates all of the neurons and glial cells in the brain.

Mushroom body

A mushroom-shaped paired-neuropil structure that is found in the D. melanogaster brain and functions in learning and memory.

Optic lobe

A morphologically distinct part of the developing D. melanogaster brain that forms the visual processing centres.

Blastomere

A cell that is generated during embryonic cleavage divisions.

P granule

A type of ribonucleoprotein particle that segregates with and marks all cells of the C. elegans germ line.

Centriole

A small organelle (consisting of two short, barrel-like arrays of microtubules) that organizes the centrosome and contributes to cytokinesis and cell-cycle progression.

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Knoblich, J. Asymmetric cell division: recent developments and their implications for tumour biology. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 11, 849–860 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm3010

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