It is fascinating how the formation of new centrioles is highly regulated in animal cycling cells: once every cell cycle, one new “daughter” centriole grows close to the already existing one, the “mother”, ensuring maintenance of centriole number. In certain cases, centrioles can also form with no “mother”, i.e. de novo. Centriole biogenesis raises many interesting questions also relevant for other structures in the cell: how is time, place and number is regulated.

Our recent work and the one of others highlighted several properties of the system, including positive and negative feedbacks, cell cycle and spatial cues (e.g. Ito et al, eLife, 2019, Cunha-Ferreira et al, Curr Biol, 2013, Lopes et al, Dev Cell 2015, Zitouni et al, Curr Biol, 2016, Gouveia et al, JCS, 2018). We are exploring critical hypotheses through a combination of biochemistry, genetics, quantitative live cell microscopy and computational modelling.