| Institution: | aCNRS-UMR 6061, Institut Génétique et Développement, IFR 140, UEB-Université Rennes 1, France;bINRA-SCRIBE UR1037, Equipe Croissance et Qualité de la Chair de Poisson, Campus Beaulieu, F-35000 Rennes, France;cDepartment of Experimental Medicine, “Sapienza” University of Rome, Italy;dDepartment of Surgical Sciences, “Sapienza” University of Rome, Italy |
| Abstract: | Aurora-C, a member of the Aurora kinase family, is implicated in the regulation of mitosis. In contrast to Aurora-A and Aurora-B its cellular localization and functions are poorly characterized. TACC1 protein belongs to the transforming acidic coiled-coil family shown to interact with the Aurora kinases. In the present study we analyzed the interaction between Aurora-C and TACC1 by means of immunofluorescence (IF), co-immunoprecipitation (IP) and in vitro phosphorylation experiments. We demonstrated that Aurora-C and TACC1 proteins co-localize to the midbody of HeLa cells during cytokinesis. Immunoprecipitated TACC1 from HeLa cell extracts was associated with Aurora-C. In addition, the interaction of the two proteins was tested by analyzing the phosphorylation of TACC1 in vitro. The results demonstrated that TACC1 is phosphorylated by Aurora-C on a serine at position 228. In conclusion, the study demonstrated that TACC1 localizes at the midbody during cytokinesis and interacts with and is a substrate of Aurora-C, which warrant further investigation in order to elucidate the functional significance of this interaction. |
