title: Aurora-A: an expedition to the pole of the spindle in Xenopus egg extracts.
abstract: The aim of this short review is to describe the contribution of Xenopus laevis egg extracts to the discovery and understanding of the regulation and function of the serine/threonine kinase Aurora-A. The power of these extracts to recapitulate cell cycle events makes them a precious tool to decipher complex biological processes at the molecular level, including the mechanisms that affect Aurora-A (post-translational modifications) and mechanisms in which Aurora-A plays a crucial role (bipolar spindle assembly). We focus on the results obtained in cell-free extracts, but we also give an updated overview of Aurora A functions found in other systems.
authors.affiliation: CNRS, Unité Mixte de Recherche UMR6290, Rennes, France.
authors.forename: Jacek Z
authors.initials: JZ
authors.lastname: Kubiak
authors.forename: Claude
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Prigent
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D064096:Aurora Kinase A / Q000378:metabolism*; D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000502:physiology; D002474:Cell-Free System / Q000378:metabolism*; D008941:Spindle Apparatus / Q000378:metabolism*; D029867:Xenopus Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D014982:Xenopus laevis / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D029867:Xenopus Proteins; D064096:Aurora Kinase A