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A kinase-independent role for Aurora A in the assembly of mitotic spindle microtubules in Caenorhabditis elegans embryos

Nature Cell Biology volume 13, pages 708–714 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

The assembly of a functional mitotic spindle is crucial for achieving successful mitosis. Aurora A kinase is one of the key regulators of mitotic events, including mitotic entry, centrosome maturation and spindle bipolarity1,2. Caenorhabditis elegans Aurora A (AIR-1) is responsible for the assembly of γ-tubulin-independent microtubules in early embryos3; however, the mechanism by which AIR-1 contributes to microtubule assembly during mitosis has been unclear. Here we show by live-cell imaging and RNA-mediated interference (RNAi)-based modulation of gene activity that AIR-1 has a crucial role in the assembly of chromatin-stimulated microtubules that is independent of the γ-tubulin complex. Surprisingly, the kinase activity of AIR-1 is dispensable for this process. Although the kinase-inactive form of AIR-1 was detected along the microtubules as well as on centrosomes, the kinase-active form of AIR-1 was restricted to centrosomes. Thus, we propose that AIR-1 has a kinase-dependent role at centrosomes and a kinase-independent role for stabilizing spindle microtubules and that coordination of these two roles is crucial for the assembly of mitotic spindles.

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Figure 1: Comparison of the assembly of microtubules in tbg-1(RNAi) and air-1(RNAi) embryos.
Figure 2: AIR-1 is required for chromatin-stimulated microtubule assembly.
Figure 3: Localization of AIR-1 along chromatin-stimulated microtubules and around condensed chromosomes.
Figure 4: Localization of the kinase-active form of AIR-1.
Figure 5: Contribution of the kinase-inactive form of AIR-1 to the spindle microtubule assembly.

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Acknowledgements

We thank F. Motegi, M. Sato and R. E. Carazo-Salas for discussion and critically reading the manuscript. We also thank Y. Kohara, A. A. Hyman, A. Audya and K. Oegema for reagents and T. Toda and M. Mishima for helpful comments. We are grateful to the Sugimoto Laboratory members for their support. This work was supported by MEXT KAKENHI 17017038 and JSPS KAKENHI 19671003 to A.S. and by JSPS KAKENHI 21570209 to M. Toya. M. Toya is a RIKEN Special Postdoctoral Researcher. Some nematode strains used in this work were provided by the Caenorhabditis Genetics Center, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health National Center for Research Resources.

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  1. Masahiro Terasawa

    Present address: Present address: Institute for Protein Research, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Developmental Genomics, RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology, Kobe 650-0047, Japan

    Mika Toya, Masahiro Terasawa, Kayo Nagata, Yumi Iida & Asako Sugimoto

  2. Laboratory of Developmental Dynamics, Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, 2-2-1 Katahira, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8577, Japan

    Asako Sugimoto

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Contributions

M. Toya and A.S. designed the research; M. Toya carried out RNAi, imaging analyses and phenotype characterization; M. Terasawa carried out AIR-1 protein production and kinase assays; K.N. contributed to plasmid construction and biochemical experiments; Y.I. contributed to RNAi experiments and construction of transgenic lines; M. Toya and A.S. wrote the paper; A.S. supervised the study and finalized the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Asako Sugimoto.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Toya, M., Terasawa, M., Nagata, K. et al. A kinase-independent role for Aurora A in the assembly of mitotic spindle microtubules in Caenorhabditis elegans embryos. Nat Cell Biol 13, 708–714 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb2242

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