Promotion and Suppression of Centriole Duplication Are Catalytically Coupled through PLK4 to Ensure Centriole Homeostasis

•Persistent PLK4 is required to stabilize the cartwheel and newborn centrioles•Phosphomimetic STIL requires active PLK4 to support centriole duplication•Phosphomimetic STIL can bypass the requirement of PLK4 for cartwheel maintenance•Loss of intact cartwheel induces stochastic reduplication of mother centrioles

SummaryPLK4 is the major kinase driving centriole duplication. Duplication occurs only once per cell cycle, forming one new (or daughter) centriole that is tightly engaged to the preexisting (or mother) centriole. Centriole engagement is known to block the reduplication of mother centrioles, but the molecular identity responsible for the block remains unclear. Here, we show that the centriolar cartwheel, the geometric scaffold for centriole assembly, forms the identity of daughter centrioles essential for the block, ceasing further duplication of the mother centriole to which it is engaged. To ensure a steady block, we found that the cartwheel requires constant maintenance by PLK4 through phosphorylation of the same substrate that drives centriole assembly, revealing a parsimonious control in which “assembly” and “block for new assembly” are linked through the same catalytic reaction to achieve homeostasis. Our results support a recently deduced model that the cartwheel-bound PLK4 directly suppresses centriole reduplication.

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