Centrosome
An organelle located in the cytoplasm of all animal cells and many plants, fungi, and protozoa that controls the polymerization, position, and polar orientation of many of the cell's microtubules throughout the cell cycle. There is usually one centrosome per cell, located near the cell's center; it doubles during interphase, so there are two when the cell divides. At the onset of mitosis, each centrosome increases the number of microtubules it initiates. These mitotic microtubules are more labile and generally shorter than their interphase counterparts, and as they rapidly grow and shrink they probe the space around the centrosome that initiated them. When the nuclear envelope disperses, the microtubules extend from the centrosome into the former nucleoplasm where the chromosomes have already condensed. Some of these microtubules attach to the chromosomes, while others interact with microtubules produced by the sister centrosome, forming a mitotic spindle that organizes and segregates the chromosomes. During anaphase, sister centrosomes are forced apart as the spindle elongates, allowing each daughter cell to receive one centrosome to organize its microtubules in the next cell generation. See Cell cycle, Cell motility
The shapes of centrosomes differ widely between organisms. The centrosomes of animal cells (see illustration) usually contain a pair of perpendicular centrioles including a parent centriole formed in an earlier cell generation and a daughter centriole formed during the most recent interphase. Centrioles can serve as basal bodies for the initiation of a cilium or flagellum in the cells that make them. They appear to be essential for the formation of these motile appendages, so centriole inheritance by both daughters at cell division is analogous to the transmission of a gene. See Centriole, Cilia and flagella, Cytoskeleton
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Centrosome action is regulated as a function of time in the cell cycle. The increase in microtubule number that occurs prior to mitosis is correlated with a significant increase in the extent of phosphorylation of several centrosomal proteins. The protein kinase p34cdc2, which helps to regulate the cell cycle, is concentrated at the centrosome, together with cyclin-B, a positive regulator of this kinase. See Mitosis
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