Assembling a bipolar spindle in oocytes is essential for successful reproduction, yet how these structures form is poorly understood. This study identified crucial roles for a microtubule-associated kinase, ZYG-8, in forming and stabilizing the C. elegans oocyte spindle, demonstrating that this protein helps to tune spindle forces. Shown are an experimentally-generated monopolar spindle (top left), and monopolar spindles in oocytes lacking ZYG-8 (green = microtubules; white = chromosomes). When ZYG-8 is depleted, outward forces are activated, resulting in sorting of microtubule minus ends (magenta) to the periphery of the monopolar spindle (top right) or restoration of spindle bipolarity (bottom). See Czajkowski et al. Download September’s cover page.
Image Credit: Emily Czajkowski, Sadie Wignall
Research Articles
The doublecortin-family kinase ZYG-8DCLK1 regulates microtubule dynamics and motor-driven forces to promote the stability of C. elegans acentrosomal spindles
PLOS Genetics: published September 3, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1011373
An unscheduled switch to endocycles induces a reversible senescent arrest that impairs growth of the Drosophila wing disc
PLOS Genetics: published September 3, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1011387
Temporal epigenome modulation enables efficient bacteriophage engineering and functional analysis of phage DNA modifications
PLOS Genetics: published September 4, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1011384
Pleiotropic effects of PAB1 deletion: Extensive changes in the yeast proteome, transcriptome, and translatome
PLOS Genetics: published September 5, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1011392
An integrative taxonomy approach reveals Saccharomyces chiloensis sp. nov. as a newly discovered species from Coastal Patagonia
PLOS Genetics: published September 6, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1011396
MR-SPLIT: A novel method to address selection and weak instrument bias in one-sample Mendelian randomization studies
PLOS Genetics: published September 6, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1011391
RluA is the major mRNA pseudouridine synthase in Escherichia coli
PLOS Genetics: published September 6, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1011100
Genetic variation in CCDC93 is associated with elevated central systolic blood pressure, impaired arterial relaxation, and mitochondrial dysfunction
PLOS Genetics: published September 9, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1011151
The NF-κB Factor Relish maintains blood progenitor homeostasis in the developing Drosophila lymph gland
PLOS Genetics: published September 9, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1011403
Histone variant H2A.Z is needed for efficient transcription-coupled NER and genome integrity in UV challenged yeast cells
PLOS Genetics: published September 10, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1011300
Direct targets of MEF2C are enriched for genes associated with schizophrenia and cognitive function and are involved in neuron development and mitochondrial function
PLOS Genetics: published September 11, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1011093
Evolutionary rate covariation is pervasive between glycosylation pathways and points to potential disease modifiers
PLOS Genetics: published September 11, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1011406
Subfunctionalization of NRC3 altered the genetic structure of the Nicotiana NRC network
PLOS Genetics: published September 12, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1011402
The transcription factor RUNT-like regulates pupal cuticle development via promoting a pupal cuticle protein transcription
PLOS Genetics: published September 12, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1011393
Nickel tolerance is channeled through C-4 methyl sterol oxidase Erg25 in the sterol biosynthesis pathway
PLOS Genetics: published September 16, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1011413
Evolution recovers the fitness of Acinetobacter baylyi strains with large deletions through mutations in deletion-specific targets and global post-transcriptional regulators
PLOS Genetics: published September 16, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1011306
Constraining models of dominance for nonsynonymous mutations in the human genome
PLOS Genetics: published September 20, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1011198
NEMF mutations in mice illustrate how Importin-β specific nuclear transport defects recapitulate neurodegenerative disease hallmarks
PLOS Genetics: published September 23, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1011411
Upstream open reading frames repress the translation from the iab-8 RNA
PLOS Genetics: published September 23, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1011214
PNLDC1 catalysis and postnatal germline function are required for piRNA trimming, LINE1 silencing, and spermatogenesis in mice
PLOS Genetics: published September 23, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1011429
Multiple independent losses of crossover interference during yeast evolutionary history
PLOS Genetics: published September 26, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1011426
Human cells contain myriad excised linear intron RNAs with links to gene regulation and potential utility as biomarkers
PLOS Genetics: published September 26, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1011416
Hypopituitarism in Sox3 null mutants correlates with altered NG2-glia in the median eminence and is influenced by aspirin and gut microbiota
PLOS Genetics: published September 26, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1011395
Prioritizing disease-related rare variants by integrating gene expression data
PLOS Genetics: published September 30, 2024 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1011412