title: Amorphous no more: subdiffraction view of the pericentriolar material architecture.
abstract: The centrosome influences the shape, orientation and activity of the microtubule cytoskeleton. The pericentriolar material (PCM), determines this functionality by providing a dynamic platform for nucleating microtubules and acts as a nexus for molecular signaling. Although great strides have been made in understanding PCM activity, its diffraction-limited size and amorphous appearance on electron microscopy (EM) have limited analysis of its high-order organization. Here, we outline current knowledge of PCM architecture and assembly, emphasizing recent super-resolution imaging studies that revealed the PCM has a layered structure made of fibers and matrices conserved from flies to humans. Notably, these studies debunk the long-standing view of an amorphous PCM and provide a paradigm to dissect the supramolecular organization of organelles in cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, HHMI and University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA. Electronic address: vito.mennella@ucsf.edu.
authors.forename: Vito
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Mennella
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, HHMI and University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Agard
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA; Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Lunenfeld Tanenbaum Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Canada; Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: Laurence
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pelletier
mesh_terms: D002502:Centrioles / Q000648:ultrastructure; D018385:Centrosome / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D006801:Humans; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D008870:Microtubules / Q000648:ultrastructure
keywords: cell cycle; centrosomes; cilia; mitosis; pericentriolar material; super-resolution microscopy