Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 7, 2026

Computational Analysis of the Caenorhabditis elegans Germline to Study the Distribution of Nuclei, Proteins, and the Cytoskeleton
Published on: April 19, 2018
Asymmetric segregation of PIE-1 in C. elegans is mediated by two complementary mechanisms that act through separate
K J Reese1, M A Dunn, J A Waddle
1Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA.
Abstract:
The CCCH finger protein PIE-1 is a regulator of germ cell fate that segregates with the germ lineage in early embryos. At each asymmetric division, PIE-1 is inherited preferentially by the germline daughter and is excluded from the somatic daughter. We show that this asymmetry is regulated at the protein level by two complementary mechanisms. The first acts before cell division to enrich PIE-1 in the cytoplasm destined for the germline daughter. The second acts after cell division to eliminate any PIE-1 left in the somatic daughter. The latter mechanism depends on PIE-1's first CCCH finger (ZF1), which targets PIE-1 for degradation in somatic blastomeres. ZF1s in two other germline proteins, POS-1 and MEX-1, are also degraded in somatic blastomeres, suggesting that localized degradation also acts on these proteins to exclude them from somatic lineages.
Related Concept Videos
Conservation of Protein Domains Over Different Proteins
A limited set of protein domains often duplicate and recombine during evolution. These domains can be organized in different combinations to form...
Position-effect Variegation
piRNA - Piwi-interacting RNAs
Separation of Sister Chromatids
At the onset of anaphase, separase, a proteolytic enzyme, is...
Meiosis II
The timing and cell division patterns of meiosis differ between males and females. In male meiosis, the centrosomes are part of the formation of the meiotic spindle. However, in oocytes, including that of humans, Drosophila,...
Cell Polarization by Rho Proteins

