Unusual Centrosome Cycle in Dictyostelium: Correlation of Dynamic Behavior and Structural Changes

Centrosome duplication and separation are of central importance for cell division. Here we provide a detailed account of this dynamic process in Dictyostelium. Centrosome behavior was monitored in living cells using a γ-tubulin–green fluorescent protein construct and correlated with morphological changes at the ultrastructural level. All aspects of the duplication and separation process of this centrosome are unusual when compared with, e.g., vertebrate cells. In interphase the Dictyostelium centrosome is a box-shaped structure comprised of three major layers, surrounded by an amorphous corona from which microtubules emerge. Structural duplication takes place during prophase, as opposed to G(1)/S in vertebrate cells. The three layers of the box-shaped core structure increase in size. The surrounding corona is lost, an event accompanied by a decrease in signal intensity of γ-tubulin–green fluorescent protein at the centrosome and the breakdown of the interphase microtubule system. At the prophase/prometaphase transition the separation into two mitotic centrosomes takes place via an intriguing lengthwise splitting process where the two outer layers of the prophase centrosome peel away from each other and become the mitotic centrosomes. Spindle microtubules are now nucleated from surfaces that previously were buried inside the interphase centrosome. Finally, at the end of telophase, the mitotic centrosomes fold in such a way that the microtubule-nucleating surface remains on the outside of the organelle. Thus in each cell cycle the centrosome undergoes an apparent inside-out/outside-in reversal of its layered structure.