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How do cells survive dividing into more than 2 daughters?
Supplementary Video 2.mp4A cell undergoing multipolar division (from Blackmer et al, 2025)
When we learn about mitosis in school, we often learn that one cell duplicates its DNA, then divides into two cells-- equally segregating that DNA into the two daughters. However, sometimes cells divide into more than two daughter cells, a process called multipolar division. When this happens, there isn't enough DNA to go around among all the daughters. This often leads to cell death, as they are missing critical genes and their protein products.
Some cells are able to survive this multipolar division, however.
My research has identified a previously uncharacterized gene in fruit flies, synaptic vesicle glycoprotein 2 (SV2), that aids in the survival of cells undergoing multipolar division.
I predict that SV2 interacts with the microtubules of the mitotic spindle to promote mitotic fidelity in cells undergoing multipolar division.
Publications
Jane E Blackmer, Erin A Jezuit, Archan Chakraborty, Satya N Yalamanchi, Ruth A Montague, Erin E Dickert, Nora G Peterson, William Outlaw, Donald T Fox, Synaptic vesicle glycoprotein 2 enables viable aneuploidy following centrosome amplification, Genetics, Volume 231, Issue 2, October 2025, iyaf148, https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyaf148
Kim, G., Bhasin, S., Zheng, L., Ma, S., Aberabbo, N., Mook, J., Yi, V. N., Li, L. W., Burner, D., Owens, K. E., Blackmer, J. E., et al. Anatomy Drawing: Dissecting the Impact of Art in Medicine. Med.Sci.Educ. 35, 991–1000 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-024-02273-9
Lian X, Seiger KW, Parsons EM, Gao C, Sun W, Gladkov GT, Roseto IC, Einkauf KB, Osborn MR, Chevalier JM, Jiang C, Blackmer J, Carrington M, Rosenberg ES, Lederman MM, McMahon DK, Bosch RJ, Jacobson JM, Gandhi RT, Peluso MJ, Chun TW, Deeks SG, Yu XG, Lichterfeld M. Progressive transformation of the HIV-1 reservoir cell profile over two decades of antiviral therapy. Cell Host Microbe. 2023 Jan 11;31(1):83-96.e5. doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2022.12.002. Epub 2023 Jan 2. PMID: 36596305; PMCID: PMC9839361.
Einkauf KB, Osborn MR, Gao C, Sun W, Sun X, Lian X, Parsons EM, Gladkov GT, Seiger KW, Blackmer JE, Jiang C, Yukl SA, Rosenberg ES, Yu XG, Lichterfeld M. Parallel analysis of transcription, integration, and sequence of single HIV-1 proviruses. Cell. 2022 Jan 20;185(2):266-282.e15. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.12.011. Epub 2022 Jan 12. PMID: 35026153; PMCID: PMC8809251.
Jiang C, Lian X, Gao C, Sun X, Einkauf KB, Chevalier JM, Chen SMY, Hua S, Rhee B, Chang K, Blackmer JE, Osborn M, Peluso MJ, Hoh R, Somsouk M, Milush J, Bertagnolli LN, Sweet SE, Varriale JA, Burbelo PD, Chun TW, Laird GM, Serrao E, Engelman AN, Carrington M, Siliciano RF, Siliciano JM, Deeks SG, Walker BD, Lichterfeld M, Yu XG. Distinct viral reservoirs in individuals with spontaneous control of HIV-1. Nature. 2020 Sep;585(7824):261-267. doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2651-8. Epub 2020 Aug 26. PMID: 32848246; PMCID: PMC7837306.
Kuo HH, Banga R, Lee GQ, Gao C, Cavassini M, Corpataux JM, Blackmer JE, Zur Wiesch S, Yu XG, Pantaleo G, Perreau M, Lichterfeld M. Blood and Lymph Node Dissemination of Clonal Genome-Intact Human Immunodeficiency Virus 1 DNA Sequences During Suppressive Antiretroviral Therapy. J Infect Dis. 2020 Jul 23;222(4):655-660. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiaa137. PMID: 32236405; PMCID: PMC8493664.
Sun X, Hua S, Gao C, Blackmer JE, Ouyang Z, Ard K, Ciaranello A, Yawetz S, Sax PE, Rosenberg ES, Lichterfeld M, Yu XG. Immune-profiling of ZIKV-infected patients identifies a distinct function of plasmacytoid dendritic cells for immune cross-regulation. Nat Commun. 2020 May 15;11(1):2421. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-16217-5. PMID: 32415086; PMCID: PMC7229207.
Poster of Current Research
Blackmer 2025 TCM Poster.pdfPage updated
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