10779/crick.12746225.v1 Akiko Hori Akiko Hori Agathe Morand Agathe Morand Chiho Ikebe Chiho Ikebe David Frith David Frith Ambrosius P Snijders Ambrosius P Snijders Takashi Toda Takashi Toda The conserved Wdr8-hMsd1/SSX2IP complex localises to the centrosome and ensures proper spindle length and orientation The Francis Crick Institute 2020 Bipolar spindle Centriolar satellites Centriole Centrosome Fission yeast Spindle pole body (SPB) Super resolution microscopy WD repeats Cell Line, Tumor Gene Knockdown Techniques HeLa Cells Humans Microtubule-Associated Proteins Mitosis Nuclear Proteins Proteins Spindle Apparatus Hela Cells Toda PRT LM-ack 0304 Medicinal and Biomolecular Chemistry 0601 Biochemistry and Cell Biology 1101 Medical Biochemistry and Metabolomics Biochemistry & Molecular Biology 2020-07-31 13:25:53 Journal contribution https://crick.figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/The_conserved_Wdr8-hMsd1_SSX2IP_complex_localises_to_the_centrosome_and_ensures_proper_spindle_length_and_orientation/12746225 The centrosome plays a pivotal role in a wide range of cellular processes and its dysfunction is causally linked to many human diseases including cancer and developmental and neurological disorders. This organelle contains more than one hundred components, and yet many of them remain uncharacterised. Here we identified a novel centrosome protein Wdr8, based upon the structural conservation of the fission yeast counterpart. We showed that Wdr8 constitutively localises to the centrosome and super resolution microscopy uncovered that this protein is enriched at the proximal end of the mother centriole. Furthermore, we identified hMsd1/SSX2IP, a conserved spindle anchoring protein, as one of Wdr8 interactors by mass spectrometry. Wdr8 formed a complex and partially colocalised with hMsd1/SSX2IP. Intriguingly, knockdown of Wdr8 or hMsd1/SSX2IP displayed very similar mitotic defects, in which spindle microtubules became shortened and misoriented. Indeed, Wdr8 depletion resulted in the reduced recruitment of hMsd1/SSX2IP to the mitotic centrosome, though the converse is not true. Together, we propose that the conserved Wdr8-hMsd1/SSX2IP complex plays a critical role in controlling proper spindle length and orientation.