Fungal nuclear behavior analysed by ultraviolet microbeam irradiation

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Abstract
During hyphal tip growth in the fungus Basidiobolus magnus, nuclei normally maintain a constant distance from the advancing cell apex by continuously migrating forward. It is not known whether the mechanism that produces nuclear movement also mediates nuclear positioning, or whether these two processes are under separate control. By irradiating small cytoplasmic regions with an ultraviolet microbeam, the coordination between movement and positioning could be disrupted. Regardless of the distance of the target from the nucleus, anterior irradiations (those ahead of the nucleus) caused the nucleus to stop or move backwards, whereas posterior (behind the nucleus) irradiations caused an acceleration in the nuclear velocity. The nucleus retained its ability to move following irradiation, so there was only loss of control over normal positioning. These results suggest that movement and positioning are mediated by different mechanisms. Quantitative microtubule analysis demonstrated that microtubules in the target region had been depolymerized, but in other regions of the cell they were apparently normal. We suggest that the depolymerization of microtubules affects nuclear movement by altering the tensile strength of the cytoplasm, and that cytoskeletal tension mediate nuclear positioning.We also found that accelerated nuclear movement could occur when most of the microtubules surrounding the nucleus were depolymerized. A comparison of the microtubule population surrounding the nucleus in unirradiated versus irradiated cells suggested that microtubules move with nuclei. Therefore, the nucleus does not appear to move via a direct interaction with microtubules.