Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Regulation Of Microtubule-Based Microtubule Nucleation By Mammalian Polo-Like Kinase 1, Yoshikazu Johmura, Nak-Kyun Soung, Jung-Eun Park, Li-Rong Yu, Ming Zhou, Jeong K. Bang, Bo-Yeon Kim, Timothy D. Veenstra, Raymond L. Erikson, Kyung S. Lee

Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Bipolar spindle formation is pivotal for accurate segregation of mitotic chromosomes during cell division. A growing body of evidence suggests that, in addition to centrosome- and chromatin-based microtubule (MT) nucleation, MT-based MT nucleation plays an important role for proper bipolar spindle formation in various eukaryotic organisms. Although a recently discovered Augmin complex appears to play a central role in this event, how Augmin is regulated remains unknown. Here we provide evidence that a mammalian polo-like kinase 1 (Plk1) localizes to mitotic spindles and promotes MT-based MT nucleation by directly regulating Augmin. Mechanistically, we demonstrated that Cdc2-dependent phosphorylation on a γ-tubulin …