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Live Cell Imaging to Assess the Dynamics of Metaphase Timing and Cell Fate Following Mitotic Spindle Perturbations
Published on: September 20, 2019
Aurora A phosphorylation of TACC3/maskin is required for centrosome-dependent microtubule assembly in mitosis
Kazuhisa Kinoshita1, Tim L Noetzel, Laurence Pelletier
1Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG), 01307 Dresden, Germany. kinoshita@mpi-cbg.de
Abstract:
Centrosomes act as sites of microtubule growth, but little is known about how the number and stability of microtubules emanating from a centrosome are controlled during the cell cycle. We studied the role of the TACC3-XMAP215 complex in this process by using purified proteins and Xenopus laevis egg extracts. We show that TACC3 forms a one-to-one complex with and enhances the microtubule-stabilizing activity of XMAP215 in vitro. TACC3 enhances the number of microtubules emanating from mitotic centrosomes, and its targeting to centrosomes is regulated by Aurora A-dependent phosphorylation. We propose that Aurora A regulation of TACC3 activity defines a centrosome-specific mechanism for regulation of microtubule polymerization in mitosis.
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