Zsolt Venkei
Mitosis is accompanied by dramatic changes in the structure of the animal cell. These changes are governed by mitotic kinases, most importantly by Aurora-A, Aurora-B, CDK1 and Polo. The signaling pathways activated by the above set of kinases reach and prepare for mitosis key players of the process: such as the chromatin, centrosomes, microtubules and the nuclear lamina. However there is no clear evidence in the moment that one essential partner in mitosis, the centromere would be touched by mitotic kinases in G2 or in prophase.
This fact raise the questions: how the centromere starts to recruit kinetochore proteins and how timing of the process is harmonized with the progression of the cell cycle.
Recently our group identified the core components of the Drosophila kinetochore and described hierarchy of their recruitment to the centormere. To target the above questions I followed the subcellular localization of core kinetochore components through the cell cycle and described the timing of their recruitment to the centormere. My data suggesting that Mis12 complex (and particularly Mis12) in close collaboration with Spc105 is directly involved in the formation of the interface between the centromere and the kinetochore in Drosophila.
Proteomics studies carried out by our group and published data suggest that the interface between the centromere and the kinetochore is made up from fewer proteins in Drosophila than in mammalian systems. These results combined with the extended knowledge about Drosophila mitotic kinases provide a good basis for further experiments to understand the key steps in kinetochore assembly and the regulation of the process.
Since majority of the kinetochore components are probably already described these days we started to map systematically protein-protein interactions and post-translational modifications of core kinetochore proteins. I am involved in this work of our group and I am focusing on some interactions and modifications that might be important for proper function of the kinetochore
Areas of interest:- Kinetochore assembly
- Regulation of kinetochore assembly and function by mitotic kinases
- Genes coding for Mis12 complex subunits
- Spc105
- Przewloka MR, Venkei Z, Glover DM. Searching for Drosophila Dsn1 kinetochore protein. Cell Cycle. 2009 Apr 15;8(8):1292-3.
Zsolt Venkei
Address:
Department of Genetics,
University of Cambridge,
Downing Street,
Cambridge,
CB2 3EH,
England.
Email:
zv205@cam.ac.uk
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