Asymmetrical cell division in animal development

Cayetano González, group leader of the Cell Division Laboratory, comments in Investigación y Ciencia on the research done by E. Derivery, at the University of Geneva, addressing a special case of asymmetrical cell division in Drosophila. These kinds of division, where the two daughters of a dividing cell receive different complements of “fate” factors, are vital for the development of multicellular organisms, such as the fruit fly. However, these divisions are difficult to analyze due to technical and biological limitations.

In the original paper, published in Nature, the authors define the mechanism by which vesicles called Sara endosomes are apportioned asymmetrically into two daughter cells during the division of Sensory Organ Precursor (SOP) cells. Prof. González praises the creative way the authors solved the technical difficulties involved in observing and analyzing these divisions, namely by using a contractile ring as a marker of reference to compare all recordings of the divisions. He also speculates about the possibility of that the same mechanism is present in other species, including mammals.

Cayetano González is an ICREA Research Professor and ERC Advanced Grant holder. World expert in asymmetrical stem cell divisions, his research lines include protein traps, spindle assembly in vivo, molecular analysis of centrosomes, and cancer modeling in Drosophila.