Manolo U Rios, Małgorzata A Bagnucka, Bryan D Ryder, Beatriz Ferreira Gomes, Nicole E Familiari, Kan Yaguchi, Matthew Amato, Weronika E Stachera, Łukasz A Joachimiak, Jeffrey B Woodruff
The outermost layer of centrosomes, called pericentriolar material (PCM), organizes microtubules for mitotic spindle assembly. The molecular interactions that enable PCM to assemble and resist external forces are poorly understood. Here, we use crosslinking mass spectrometry (XL-MS) to analyze PLK-1-potentiated multimerization of SPD-5, the main PCM scaffold protein in C. elegans. In the unassembled state, SPD-5 exhibits numerous intramolecular crosslinks that are eliminated after phosphorylation by PLK-1. Thus, phosphorylation induces a structural opening of SPD-5 that primes it for assembly...
April 1, 2024: Journal of Cell Biology