2.6Å Resolution Crystal Structure of Helices of the Motile Major Sperm Protein (MSP) of Caenorhabditis elegans

2002 ◽  
Vol 319 (2) ◽  
pp. 491-499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne M.E. Baker ◽  
Thomas M. Roberts ◽  
Murray Stewart
1996 ◽  
Vol 263 (2) ◽  
pp. 284-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy L. Bullock ◽  
Thomas M. Roberts ◽  
Murray Stewart

2006 ◽  
Vol 299 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jana E. Harris ◽  
J. Amaranath Govindan ◽  
Ikuko Yamamoto ◽  
Joel Schwartz ◽  
Irina Kaverina ◽  
...  

Genetics ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 133 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
J P Varkey ◽  
P L Jansma ◽  
A N Minniti ◽  
S Ward

Abstract Caenorhabditis elegans spermatozoa move by crawling. Their motility requires thin cytoskeletal filaments assembled from a unique cytoskeletal protein, the major sperm protein (MSP). During normal sperm development the MSP is segregated to developing sperm by assembly into filaments that form a paracrystalline array in a transient organelle, the fibrous body-membranous organelle. Mutations in the spe-6 gene cause sterility because they lead to defective primary spermatocytes that do not form spermatids. In these mutant spermatocytes the MSP fails to assemble into fibrous body filaments. Instead, the unassembled MSP distributes throughout the cytoplasm and nucleus. Thus, the spe-6 gene product is necessary for normal MSP localization and assembly during sperm development. In addition to their MSP assembly defect, spe-6 mutant spermatocytes arrest meiosis at diakinesis although their spindle pole bodies still replicate and separate. This results in spermatocytes with four half-spindles surrounding condensed, but unsegregated, chromosomes. All four spe-6 alleles, as well as a chromosome III deficiency that deletes the spe-6 gene, fail to complement two small overlapping chromosome IV deficiencies, eDf18 and eDf19. This non-allele-specific second site non-complementation suggests a concentration-dependent interaction between the spe-6 gene product and products of the gene(s) under eDf18 and eDf19, which include a cluster of sperm-specific genes. Since MSP filament assembly is highly concentration-dependent in vitro, the non-complementation might be expected if the sperm-specific gene products under eDf18 and eDf19 were needed together with the spe-6 gene product to promote MSP assembly.


1988 ◽  
Vol 199 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Ward ◽  
Daniel J. Burke ◽  
John E. Sulston ◽  
Alan R. Coulson ◽  
Donna G. Albertson ◽  
...  

1999 ◽  
Vol 146 (5) ◽  
pp. 1087-1096 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph E. Italiano ◽  
Murray Stewart ◽  
Thomas M. Roberts

The major sperm protein (MSP)-based amoeboid motility of Ascaris suum sperm requires coordinated lamellipodial protrusion and cell body retraction. In these cells, protrusion and retraction are tightly coupled to the assembly and disassembly of the cytoskeleton at opposite ends of the lamellipodium. Although polymerization along the leading edge appears to drive protrusion, the behavior of sperm tethered to the substrate showed that an additional force is required to pull the cell body forward. To examine the mechanism of cell body movement, we used pH to uncouple cytoskeletal polymerization and depolymerization. In sperm treated with pH 6.75 buffer, protrusion of the leading edge slowed dramatically while both cytoskeletal disassembly at the base of the lamellipodium and cell body retraction continued. At pH 6.35, the cytoskeleton pulled away from the leading edge and receded through the lamellipodium as its disassembly at the cell body continued. The cytoskeleton disassembled rapidly and completely in cells treated at pH 5.5, but reformed when the cells were washed with physiological buffer. Cytoskeletal reassembly occurred at the lamellipodial margin and caused membrane protrusion, but the cell body did not move until the cytoskeleton was rebuilt and depolymerization resumed. These results indicate that cell body retraction is mediated by tension in the cytoskeleton, correlated with MSP depolymerization at the base of the lamellipodium.


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