Centrosome Structural Analysis Service

Centrosome consists a pair of centrioles, and each centriole is a cylinder of microtubules. The development of electron microscopy, cryo-tomography, and super-resolution makes it possible to build a clear structure of centrosome and centrioles.

Overview of Centrosome Structure Analysis Service

Centrosome is a eukaryote organelle involved in cell division, sensory reception, locomotion and embryogenesis, and it's consisted of a pair of centrioles. Each of them is a cylinder of microtubules that are consisted of a ring of 9 triplets of microtubules. The centriole is an evolutionary conserved cylindrical structure typically ~500 nm high and ~250 nm in diameter. The centriole can be divided in three main regions, proximal-core-distal, with each containing specific structural sub-elements.

The peculiar structure is conserved among eukaryote organisms, but in a few groups, this structure becomes extremely variable and in other groups it is lost entirely. The centrosomes are found in all major eukaryote clades, especially in animals and fungus, in which the centrosomes are of important functions in many biological processes, such as cell division and cell migration. They provide the axoneme of cilia and flagella, which are basis of cell mobility and signaling.

Centrosomal structural organization (Gomes Pereira S, et al., 2021)

The Method of Centrosome Structural Detection

Cryo-electron tomography (Cryo-ET) provides three-dimensional imagery and snapshots from the native cell interior. It makes it possible to study biological processes in a cell. It's getting more and more popular in the field of Cryo-EM in the recent years, which can be applied to study the internal organisms, typically for many structures inside cells, for example, subcellular organelles. It provides high-resolution structures of macromolecules and information about cellular processes. In this technology, the use of chemicals, fixatives, and detergents can be avoided, retaining the integrity of the cell.