Caenorhabditis elegans Aurora A kinase is required for the formation of spindle microtubules in female meiosis.

ABSTRACT: In many animals, female meiotic spindles are assembled in the absence of centrosomes, the major microtubule (MT)-organizing centers. How MTs are formed and organized into meiotic spindles is poorly understood. Here we report that, in Caenorhabditis elegans, Aurora A kinase/AIR-1 is required for the formation of spindle microtubules during female meiosis. When AIR-1 was depleted or its kinase activity was inhibited in C. elegans oocytes, although MTs were formed around chromosomes at germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD), they were decreased during meiotic prometaphase and failed to form a bipolar spindle, and chromosomes were not separated into two masses. Whereas AIR-1 protein was detected on and around meiotic spindles, its kinase-active form was concentrated on chromosomes at prometaphase a

SUBMITTER: Sumiyoshi E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4642853 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature