Abstract
The requirements of a spherical reference system based on two orthogonal goniometers show a surprising correspondence with the evidence emerging from numerous experimental studies on centrioles and centrosomes: the centrosome, because of the 9-fold symmetry of its centrioles, their orthogonal arrangement and their circumferential polarity, may play the role of an interface, composed by two orthogonal goniometers, that recognizes and decodes morphogenetic instructions, or, more generally, geometric molecular signals and translates them into their expected real locations in the cell. The purpose of this study is to outline a theoretical model of the centrosome and address the question on “how” the centrosome works, rather than investigate “what” centrioles might be or “what” might be their task, as many in-depth previous studies have discussed; the present analysis looks for the correspondence between structure and function in the centrosome, delineates a link between morphogenetic (DNA) instructions and their translation into actual locations into cells, tissues and organs, and finally analyzes centro- some behavior in many developmental processes: polarization, planar polarity, apical constriction, migration, morphogens transport, convergent extension, left-right bilateral symmetry and asymmetry establishment.
