Inheritance of genetic material from males in humans and many other animals requires flagellated motile sperm. The construction of sperm involves major, cell wide rearrangements of many complex cellular components including the nucleus, mitochondria, ER/golgi and the cytoskeleton. Failure in any of these rearrangements can result in sperm incapable of performing their function and subfertility in affected individuals.
Basal bodies in sperm and Head-Tail linkage
Our lab is interested in the proper formation of basal bodies (centriole) that ensures the nucleation and anchoring of cilia. In recent years, we have focused on sperm basal bodies and how they properly attach to haploid nuclei.
A major step in the assembly of a flagellated sperm is the establishment of a tight connection between the head, which contains the genetic material, and the tail, which provides the force for swimming. Failure to establish the connection can result in decapitated sperm and reduced fertility. At the center of this connection lies the centriole with one end anchored firmly at the nuclear envelope and the other end serving to root and template the microtubule based axoneme of the cilia/flagella that makes up the tail.
- Sperm Head-Tail Linkage Requires Restriction of Pericentriolar Material to the Proximal Centriole End
, , , , , Mahadevaraju S, Oliver B, (* co-corresponding authors)
Development Cell. 2020 53(1):86-101
- Asterless is required for centriole length control and sperm development
Galletta BJ, Jacobs KC, Fagerstrom CJ, Rusan NM
Journal of Cell Biology, 23;213(4):435-50
- Drosophila Pericentrin requires interaction with Calmodulin for its function at centrosomes and neuronal basal bodies, but not at sperm basal bodies
Galletta BJ#, Guillen RX#, Fagerstrom CJ, Brownlee CW, Lerit DA, Megraw TL, Rogers GC, Rusan NM.
(# co-first authors)
Molecular Biology of the Cell, 2014 Sep 15;25(18):2682-94