How protein suicide assure healthy cell structures
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. Hence, the manipulation of these structures is being discussed for diagnosis and therapeutics. The regulation of centriole number has been further pinpointed in the latest issue of the scientific journal Current Biology. Researchers from Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia (IGC; Portugal), led by Monica Bettencourt-Dias, have now discovered that the master protein regulator in centriole formation, Polo-like kinase 4 (PLK4), needs to self-destruct in a regulated manner to ensure the presence of a normal number of centrioles in cells.