Pericentriolar material

Summary

Pericentriolar material (PCM, sometimes also called pericent matrix) is a highly structured,[1] dense mass of protein which makes up the part of the animal centrosome that surrounds the two centrioles. The PCM contains proteins responsible for microtubule nucleation and anchoring[2] including γ-tubulin, pericentrin and ninein.

The purple mesh represents pericentriolar material (PCM)

Although the PCM appears amorphous by electron microscopy, super-resolution microscopy finds that it is highly organized. The PCM have 9-fold symmetry that mimics the symmetry of the centriole.[citation needed] Some PCM proteins are organized such that one end of the protein is found near the centriole and the other end is farther away from the centriole. The PCM size is dynamic during the cell cycle. After cell division, the PCM size is reduced in a process named centrosome reduction.[3] During the G2 phase of the cell cycle, the PCM grows in size in a process named centrosome maturation.

According to the Gene Ontology, the following human proteins are associated with the PCM [1]:

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d e Lawo, Steffen; Hasegan, Monica; Gupta, Gagan D.; Pelletier, Laurence (November 2012). "Subdiffraction imaging of centrosomes reveals higher-order organizational features of pericentriolar material". Nature Cell Biology. 14 (11): 1148–1158. doi:10.1038/ncb2591. ISSN 1476-4679. PMID 23086237. S2CID 11286303.
  2. ^ Eddé, B.; Rossier; Le Caer; Desbruyères; Gros; Denoulet (1990). "Posttranslational glutamylation of alpha-tubulin". Science. 247 (4938): 83–85. Bibcode:1990Sci...247...83E. doi:10.1126/science.1967194. PMID 1967194.
  3. ^ Atypical centrioles during sexual reproduction Tomer Avidor-Reiss*, Atul Khire, Emily L. Fishman and Kyoung H. Jo Curr Biol. 2015 Nov 16;25(22):2956-63. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2015.09.045. Epub 2015 Oct 17. http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fcell.2015.00021/full