title: Caenorhabditis elegans Aurora A kinase AIR-1 is required for postembryonic cell divisions and germline development.
abstract: Many kinases are required for progression through the eukaryotic cell cycle. The Aurora kinases comprise a highly conserved family of serine/threonine kinases that have been implicated in chromosome segregation and cytokinesis in several organisms. We have isolated a sterile Caenorhabditis elegans mutant in which the majority of the locus encoding the Aurora A kinase air-1 has been deleted. Complementation tests with previously isolated sterile mutations in the air-1 genetic interval demonstrate that the air-1 and let-412 loci are identical. Previous analysis of AIR-1 function by RNA-mediated interference (RNAi) has shown that AIR-1 is required for embryonic survival. The characterization of the three sterile air-1 mutant alleles described here extends these studies by revealing an allelic series that differentially affects postembryonic cell divisions and germline development.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Genetics, The University of Texas M D.Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas 77030-4095, USA.
authors.forename: Tokiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Furuta
authors.forename: David L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Baillie
authors.forename: Jill M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Schumacher
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D064096:Aurora Kinase A; D064127:Aurora Kinases; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development*; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D002455:Cell Division; D002490:Central Nervous System / Q000166:cytology / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D005854:Germ Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D034622:RNA Interference; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D014844:Vulva / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D064096:Aurora Kinase A; D064127:Aurora Kinases; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases; C576939:air-1 protein, C elegans