TY - JOUR
T1 - Combover interacts with the axonemal component Rsp3 and is required for Drosophila sperm individualization
AU - Steinhauer, Josefa
AU - Statman, Benjamin
AU - Fagan, Jeremy K.
AU - Borck, Jacob
AU - Surabhi, Satya
AU - Yarikipati, Prathibha
AU - Edelman, Daniel
AU - Jenny, Andreas
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Gamete formation is key to survival of higher organisms. In male animals, spermatogenesis gives rise to interconnected spermatids that differentiate and individualize into mature sperm, each tightly enclosed by a plasma membrane. In Drosophila melanogaster, individualization of sister spermatids requires the formation of specialized actin cones that synchronously move along the sperm tails, removing inter-spermatid bridges and most of the cytoplasm. Here, we show that Combover (Cmb), originally identified as an effector of planar cell polarity (PCP) under control of Rho kinase, is essential for sperm individualization. cmb mutants are male sterile, with actin cones that fail to move in a synchronized manner along the flagella, despite being correctly formed and polarized initially. These defects are germline autonomous, independent of PCP genes, and can be rescued by wild-type Cmb, but not by a version of Cmb in which known Rho kinase phosphorylation sites are mutated. Furthermore, Cmb binds to the axonemal component Radial spoke protein 3, knockdown of which causes similar individualization defects, suggesting that Cmb coordinates the individualization machinery with the microtubular axonemes.
AB - Gamete formation is key to survival of higher organisms. In male animals, spermatogenesis gives rise to interconnected spermatids that differentiate and individualize into mature sperm, each tightly enclosed by a plasma membrane. In Drosophila melanogaster, individualization of sister spermatids requires the formation of specialized actin cones that synchronously move along the sperm tails, removing inter-spermatid bridges and most of the cytoplasm. Here, we show that Combover (Cmb), originally identified as an effector of planar cell polarity (PCP) under control of Rho kinase, is essential for sperm individualization. cmb mutants are male sterile, with actin cones that fail to move in a synchronized manner along the flagella, despite being correctly formed and polarized initially. These defects are germline autonomous, independent of PCP genes, and can be rescued by wild-type Cmb, but not by a version of Cmb in which known Rho kinase phosphorylation sites are mutated. Furthermore, Cmb binds to the axonemal component Radial spoke protein 3, knockdown of which causes similar individualization defects, suggesting that Cmb coordinates the individualization machinery with the microtubular axonemes.
KW - Axoneme
KW - Combover
KW - Individualization
KW - Planar cell polarity
KW - Rho kinase
KW - Spermatogenesis
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85071784353&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85071784353&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1242/dev.179275
DO - 10.1242/dev.179275
M3 - Article
C2 - 31391193
AN - SCOPUS:85071784353
SN - 0950-1991
VL - 146
JO - Development (Cambridge)
JF - Development (Cambridge)
IS - 17
M1 - dev179275
ER -