The centrosome is a unique organelle: the semi-conservative nature of its duplication generates an inherent asymmetry between ‘mother’ and ‘daughter’ centrosomes, which differ in their age. This asymmetry has captivated many cell biologists, but its meaning has remained enigmatic. In the last two decades, many stem cell types have been shown to display stereotypical inheritance of either the mother or daughter centrosome. These observations have led to speculation that the mother and daughter centrosomes bear distinct information, contributing to differential cell fates during asymmetric cell divisions. This review summarizes recent progress and discusses how centrosome asymmetry may promote asymmetric fates during stem cell divisions.

中心体是一种独特的细胞器：其复制的半保守性质在“母亲”和“女儿”中心体之间产生了固有的不对称性，它们的年龄不同。这种不对称性吸引了许多细胞生物学家，但其含义仍然是个谜。在过去的二十年里，许多干细胞类型已被证明显示出母体或子体中心体的刻板遗传。这些观察结果导致推测母体和子体中心体携带不同的信息，导致不对称细胞分裂期间细胞命运的差异。本综述总结了最近的进展并讨论了中心体不对称如何促进干细胞分裂过程中的不对称命运。