Figure 3.
Over-elongated centrioles show additional structural abnormalities
(A) Segmented electron tomography data showing representative over-elongated centrioles with the phenotypes “broken” (top, red), “incomplete” (middle, green), and “asymmetric” (bottom, blue). The respective key feature of each phenotype is marked with a black triangle: breakage point with diverging triplets at the distal end (broken) in the top panel, multiple subdistal appendages on a longitudinal structure consisting of less than nine microtubule triplets (incomplete) in the middle panel, and an asymmetrically elongated distal end (asymmetric) in the bottom panel. Scale bars, 500 nm.
(B) Violin plots and integrated box plots showing the length distribution of normal versus abnormal centrioles in CD138pos plasma cells from a patient with relapsed/refractory MM. The abnormal group is subdivided and color coded into broken, incomplete, and asymmetric. The cutoff value for over-elongation of 500 nm is displayed as red dashed line. N (individual centrioles): normal (375), abnormal (33), broken (13), incomplete (6), asymmetric (18). The Wilcoxon rank-sum test was used for pairwise comparisons. ∗∗p < 0.01, ∗∗∗p < 0.001.
(C–E) Different views of electron tomography data, reconstructed and joined from five consecutive sections, of one representative structurally aberrant mother centriole and two adjacent structurally normal daughter centrioles.
(C) Different z-planes of the aberrant mother centriole as displayed in the original reconstructed electron tomography volume. Scale bar, 200 nm.
(D) Model view of the centrioles containing data used for measurements. For the mother centriole, length measurements for both parts of the broken centriole are displayed as two distinct vectors along the longitudinal axis. Appendages are marked with triangles. Scale bar, 200 nm.
(E) 3D visualization using Amira software. The mother centriole (orange) shows over-elongation (total length: 1692 nm) and a broken distal end (dark orange and light orange). Supernumerary subdistal appendages are marked in yellow. Two structurally normal daughter centrioles (lengths: 358 and 443 nm) are displayed in green and blue, respectively.
See also Figure S3.