Choreography of the centrosome

More than a century ago, the centrosome was discovered and described as “the true division organ of the cell”. Electron microscopy revealed that a centrosome is an amorphous structure or pericentriolar protein matrix that surrounds a pair of well-organized centrioles. Today, the importance of the centrosome as a microtubule-organizing center and coordinator of the mitotic spindle is questioned, because centrioles are absent in up to half of all known eukaryotic species, and various mechanisms for acentrosomal microtubule nucleation have been described. This review recapitulates the known functions of centrosome movements in cellular homeostasis and discusses knowledge gaps in this field.