Disease relevance of dli-1

• Animals homozygous for loss-of-function mutations in dli-1 exhibit stochastic failed divisions in late larval cell lineages, resulting in zygotic sterility. dli-1 is required for dynein function during mitosis [1].

High impact information on dli-1

• Recent work identified a novel dynein light intermediate chain (D2LIC) that colocalized with the mammalian cDHC1b homolog DHC2 in the centrosomal region of cultured cells [2].
• Amino acid substitutions in a conserved lysine residue, known to be required for nucleotide binding, confers complete rescue in a dli-1 mutant background, indicating this is not an essential domain for DLI-1 function [1].
• Cytoplasmic dynein light intermediate chain is required for discrete aspects of mitosis in Caenorhabditis elegans [1].

References