In higher vertebrates, multicilia are important for luminal flow and for the removal of thick mucus, and they form in specialized terminally differentiated epithelial cells. As each cilium requires a centriole, these cells must undergo massive centriole amplification to generate hundreds of centrioles. Although some are generated through a mother centriole-dependent (MCD) pathway, the majority are formed through a de novo pathway, which is mediated by a structure known as a deuterosome. Zhao et al. find that the deuterosome-dependent pathway is governed by DEUP1 (deuterosome protein 1), a paralogue of CEP63 (centrosomal protein 63). In the same way that CEP63 binds to CEP152 and then recruits PLK4 (polo-like kinase 4) to activate MCD centriole biogenesis, CEP63 binds to CEP152 and then recruits PLK4 for de novo formation of centrioles in multiciliated cells.
References
Zhao, A. N. et al. The Cep63 paralogue Deup1 enables massive de novo centriole biogenesis for vertebrate multiciliogenesis. Nature Cell Biol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncb2880 (2013)
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Baumann, K. Multiciliogenesis from scratch. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 14, 751 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm3709
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm3709