Excerpt from article:
"Centrioles are tiny structures in the cell that play an important role in cell division and in the assembly of cilia and flagella. Changes in the number of centrioles are involved in diseases, such as cancer or infertility."
Centrioles are formed with the use of a protein regulator named Polo-like kinase 4 (PLK4), when it is absent or in excess, the centrioles may never form or form too many, therefore some form of regulation must occur. PLK4 regulates itself by what the scientists consider, suicide. PLK4 self-destructs in a controlled and timely manner; it does so by adding a phosphate group on to different sites of PLK4 in a specific order to act as destruction signals.
Using the model organism known as the fruit fly, scientists were able to observe the effect of an abolished destruction mechanism on its fertility in both male and females; both showed to have been impacted by the change.
I thought this was interesting because the whole time I was reading the article I kept thinking of the movie The Core. In the movie, they had to set a bomb off at a precise time and at a precise distance around the core to ensure that the core will being to rotate again (for those who have not seen the movie, the world was coming to an end because the core of the Earth was no longer rotating). Well, for the PLK4 protein, it had to self-destruct by a series of events to at a precise time to provide PLK4 "with enough time for centriole number control before it is degraded". Number control helped with making sure it did not kill all PLK4 proteins present and that enough is actually killed.
What do you all think about this mechanism of self-destructing?
Article:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131031124815.htm
I thought that this was pretty common? I of course cannot think of anything off the top of my head, because it probably is some type of weird scientific name. But I know that I've heard about this somewhere else. Anyways I think its cool. It would be even cooler if we could isolate the mechanism of destruction and use it on other things.
ReplyDeleteI believe the idea is pretty common. When reading on it, it was something that rang a bell for myself as well. If we could isolate this mechanism, I can only wonder how it could be applied...interesting I'd say!
DeleteI think the mechanism of self-destructing can be quite useful within organisms. It prevents build up that could induce problems in the long run. I agree with Gaby, I think I've heard of other things that use this mechanism for self regulating, but I cannot recall any.
ReplyDeleteSame here. As I replied to Gaby, I too ran a blank when trying to think where else I have seen the idea.
DeleteCorrect me if I am wrong, but isn't the term you guys are looking for "apoptosis"? If so, then yes it is very common. Apoptosis is programmed cell suicide (there should be a cell suicide hotline, or AA for Apoptosis Anonymous). Anyway, according to wikipedia, apoptosis is usually advantageous, whether it be to keep levels relatively constant, or to keep itself from letting pathogenic material from spreading to other cells. Interesting article by the way :).
ReplyDeleteFor me, yes this is what I was thinking of.
DeleteJohn's comment about the hotline made me laugh.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I wrote a blog awhile back along the lines of this one? I could go back and look as I type this, but that would be too easy! If I remember correctly, it also had to do with cell destruction in a time of need using a different protein.
It's still cool to see the many proteins involved in cell destruction when cell destruction is needed for different reasons.
I would agree. I am just amazed at how the body functions!
DeleteThis may be a stupid question but why can't we just induce a cell to undergo apoptosis? Or that would be too easy..? Or it's probably not even possible... Hmm.
ReplyDeleteI don't see why not? I'm not sure of the mechanics behind it so I'm not sure if it is or is not possible, but if it is, my only concern would be regulating it.
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