Cytoplasmic localization and asymmetric division in the early embryo of Caenorhabditis elegans

During the initial cleavages of the Caenorhabditis elegans embryo, a series of rapid and invariant asymmetric cell divisions pattern the fate, size, and position of four somatic blastomeres and a single germline blastomere. These asymmetric divisions are orchestrated by a collection of maternally deposited factors that are initially symmetrically distributed in the newly fertilized embryo. Maturation of the sperm-derived centrosome in the posterior cytoplasm breaks this symmetry by triggering a dramatic and highly stereotyped partitioning of these maternal factors. A network of conserved cell polarity regulators, the PAR proteins, form distinct anterior and posterior domains at the cell cortex. From these domains, the PAR proteins direct the segregation of somatic and germline factors into opposing regions of the cytoplasm such that, upon cell division, they are preferentially inherited by the somatic blastomere or the germline blastomere, respectively. The segregation of these factors is controlled, at least in part, by a series of reaction–diffusion mechanisms that are asymmetrically deployed along the anterior/posterior axis. The characterization of these mechanisms has important implications for our understanding of how cells are polarized and how spatial organization is generated in the cytoplasm. WIREs Dev Biol 2015, 4:267–282. doi: 10.1002/wdev.177 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website. Conflict of interest: The author has declared no conflicts of interest for this article.