Frank J. McNally, Ph.D.

Meiosis is a process by which animals, plants and fungi reduce chromosome number four-fold to produce haploid gametes. In females of both plants and animals, only one of four sets of chromosomes segregated during meiosis is inherited by a gamete. In animals, this asymmetric inheritance is mediated by asymmetric meiotic spindle positioning and highly asymmetric cell divisions that yield a large haploid egg. We are interested in the mechanisms that mediate these asymmetric divisions and utilize C. elegans because both meiotic divisions can be filmed in utero using fluorescent protein fusions and time-lapse imaging. We use a combination of classical genetics, RNAi and biochemistry to elucidate the roles of proteins that regulate microtubule-based motility, microtubule organization and microtubule dynamics in meiotic cell division.