title: Cdk1 plays matchmaker for the Polo-like kinase and its activator SPAT-1/Bora.
abstract: Mitosis is orchestrated by several protein kinases including Cdks, Plks and Aurora kinases. Despite considerable progress toward understanding the individual function of these protein kinases, how their activity is coordinated in space and time during mitosis is less well understood. In a recent article published in the Journal of Cell Biology, we show that CDK-1 regulates PLK-1 activity during mitosis in C. elegans embryos through multisite phosphorylation of the PLK-1 activator SPAT-1 (Aurora Borealis, Bora in human). SPAT-1 variants mutated on CDK-1 phosphorylation sites results in severe delays in mitotic entry, mimicking embryos lacking spat-1 or plk-1 function. We further show that SPAT-1 phosphorylation by CDK-1 promotes its binding to PLK-1 and stimulates PLK-1 phosphorylation on its activator T-loop by Aurora A kinase in vitro. Likewise, we find that phosphorylation of Bora by Cdk1 promotes phosphorylation of human Plk1 by Aurora A suggesting that this mechanism is conserved in humans. These results indicate that Cdk1 regulates Plk1 by boosting its kinase activity. Here we discuss these recent findings and open questions regarding the regulation of Plk1/PLK-1 by Cdk1/CDK-1 and Bora/SPAT-1.
authors.affiliation: a Jacques Monod Institute; UMR7592; Paris-Diderot University; CNRS ; Paris , France.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tavernier
authors.forename: Costanza
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Panbianco
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gotta
authors.forename: Lionel
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pintard
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016203:CDC2 Protein Kinase / Q000378:metabolism*; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics*; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000235:genetics; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008938:Mitosis / Q000235:genetics*; D010766:Phosphorylation; D011485:Protein Binding / Q000235:genetics; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000378:metabolism*; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D000097869:Polo-Like Kinase 1
chemical_list: D016203:CDC2 Protein Kinase; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases; C552693:SPAT-1 protein, C elegans; C513017:plk-1 protein, C elegans; D000097869:Polo-Like Kinase 1
keywords: C. elegans; Cell cycle; Embryo; Mitosis