Kinetochore localization of spindle checkpoint proteins: who controls whom?

• Published in: Molecular biology of the cell Vol. 15; no. 10; pp. 4584 - 4596
• Main Authors: Vigneron, Suzanne, Prieto, Susana, Bernis, Cyril, Labbé, Jean-Claude, Castro, Anna, Lorca, Thierry
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Society for Cell Biology 01.10.2004
• Subjects: Animals; Aurora Kinases; Biochemistry, Molecular Biology; Cell Cycle Proteins - genetics; Cell Cycle Proteins - metabolism; Cellular Biology; Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone - genetics; Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone - metabolism; Cytoskeletal Proteins - genetics; Cytoskeletal Proteins - metabolism; Kinetochores - metabolism; Life Sciences; Molecular biology; Molecular Networks; Oocytes - cytology; Oocytes - physiology; Protein Kinases - genetics; Protein Kinases - metabolism; Protein-Serine-Threonine Kinases - genetics; Protein-Serine-Threonine Kinases - metabolism; Signal Transduction - physiology; Spindle Apparatus - genetics; Spindle Apparatus - metabolism; Subcellular Processes; Xenopus laevis; Xenopus Proteins - genetics; Xenopus Proteins - metabolism
• ISSN: 1059-1524; 1939-4586
• DOI: 10.1091/mbc.e04-01-0051

The spindle checkpoint prevents anaphase onset until all the chromosomes have successfully attached to the spindle microtubules. The mechanisms by which unattached kinetochores trigger and transmit a primary signal are poorly understood, although it seems to be dependent at least in part, on the kinetochore localization of the different checkpoint components. By using protein immunodepletion and mRNA translation in Xenopus egg extracts, we have studied the hierarchic sequence and the interdependent network that governs protein recruitment at the kinetochore in the spindle checkpoint pathway. Our results show that the first regulatory step of this cascade is defined by Aurora B/INCENP complex. Aurora B/INCENP controls the activation of a second regulatory level by inducing at the kinetochore the localization of Mps1, Bub1, Bub3, and CENP-E. This localization, in turn, promotes the recruitment to the kinetochore of Mad1/Mad2, Cdc20, and the anaphase promoting complex (APC). Unlike Aurora B/INCENP, Mps1, Bub1, and CENP-E, the downstream checkpoint protein Mad1 does not regulate the kinetochore localization of either Cdc20 or APC. Similarly, Cdc20 and APC do not require each other to be localized at these chromosome structures. Thus, at the last step of the spindle checkpoint cascade, Mad1/Mad2, Cdc20, and APC are recruited at the kinetochores independently from each other.