CCDC57 Cooperates with Microtubules and Microcephaly Protein Cep63 and Regulates Centriole Duplication and Mitotic Progression

Centrosomes play critical roles in diverse cellular processes ranging from cell division to cellular signaling. At the core of the centrosomes are two centrioles, which duplicate only once per cell cycle and this duplication cycle is tightly regulated. Accordingly, their deregulation causes diseases such as cancer and developmental disorders like primary microcephaly. Complete understanding of the mechanisms that regulate centrosome biogenesis and function is required to elucidate the disease mechanisms. In this study, we identified a new centrosome protein CCDC57, which also localizes and binds to centriolar satellites and microtubules. Proximity-labeling and interaction studies showed that CCDC57 forms a complex with Cep63, centriolar satellites and microtubules. Importantly,characterization of CCDC57 deletion mutants revealed that its N-terminal 1-502 amino acid region mediated its centrosomal localization and interactions, whereas the C-terminal 606-916 amino acid region mediated its localization and binding to microtubules. Loss of CCDC57 causes defects in canonical centriole duplication and centriole amplification, and results in a failure to localize microcephaly-associated proteins Cep63 and Cep152 to the centriole during initiation of centriole duplication. Additionally, CCDC57 depletion resulted in prolonged mitosis, increased apoptosis and a higher ratio of mitotic defects such as misaligned chromosomes and multipolar spindles. Together, our results identify CCDC57 as dual regulator of the Cep63 centriole duplication module and microtubule-mediated mitotic processes and provide new mechanistic insight into defects underlying cancer and primary microcephaly.