Knockdown of the centrosomal component SAS-5 results in defects in nuclear morphology in Caenorhabditis elegans

Several different processes must be completed in order to proceed through cell division. First, the centrosomes have to be duplicated and the genomic material is replicated. The separation of the chromatin is achieved by a bipolar spindle, which in turn is organized by the two centrosomes. The last step of cell division involves the separation of cellular content and the cleavage of the cell by cytokinesis. We used RNAi to study the centrosomal component SAS-5 in the early Caenorhabditis elegans embryo. While the first cell division and the establishment of polarity of sas-5 dsRNA-treated embryos was indistinguishable from wild type, subsequent cleavages were abnormal. Time-lapse microscopy studies of worms expressing β-tubulin::GFP revealed that the absence of SAS-5 results in a failure of mitotic spindle assembly starting at the two-cell stage embryo. Furthermore, the chromatin in at least one of the two cells in the early embryo was dispersed. Yet, this dispersion did neither trigger apoptosis nor affect nuclear envelope assembly. No intrinsic size control for the nucleus seems to exist in the early embryo.