Oegema Karen, Hyman Anthony A
Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
WormBook. 2006 Jan 19:1-40. doi: 10.1895/wormbook.1.72.1.
The C. elegans embryo is a powerful model system for studying the mechanics of metazoan cell division. Its primary advantage is that the architecture of the syncytial gonad makes it possible to use RNAi to generate oocytes whose cytoplasm is reproducibly (typically >95%) depleted of targeted essential gene products via a process that does not depend exclusively on intrinsic protein turnover. The depleted oocytes can then be analyzed as they attempt their first mitotic division following fertilization. Here we outline the characteristics that contribute to the usefulness of the C. elegans embryo for cell division studies. We provide a timeline for the first embryonic mitosis and highlight some of its key features. We also summarize some of the recent discoveries made using this system, particularly in the areas of nuclear envelope assembly/dissassembly, centrosome dynamics, formation of the mitotic spindle, kinetochore assembly, chromosome segregation, and cytokinesis.
秀丽隐杆线虫胚胎是研究后生动物细胞分裂机制的强大模型系统。其主要优势在于，合胞体性腺的结构使得利用RNA干扰技术产生卵母细胞成为可能，通过一个并非完全依赖于内在蛋白质周转的过程，这些卵母细胞的细胞质中可重复性地（通常>95%）耗尽靶向必需基因产物。然后，可在受精后这些卵母细胞尝试进行首次有丝分裂时对其进行分析。在此，我们概述了秀丽隐杆线虫胚胎对细胞分裂研究有用性的相关特征。我们给出了首次胚胎有丝分裂的时间线，并突出了其一些关键特征。我们还总结了利用该系统取得的一些最新发现，特别是在核膜组装/拆卸、中心体动力学、有丝分裂纺锤体形成、动粒组装、染色体分离和胞质分裂等领域。
