Int. J. Dev. Biol. 60: 255 - 261 (2016)

https://doi.org/10.1387/ijdb.160189jk

Vol 60, Issue 7-8-9

Special Issue: Cell-free Extracts in Development & Cancer Research

Aurora-A: an expedition to the pole of the spindle in Xenopus egg extracts

Published: 13 October 2016

Jacek Z. Kubiak^1,2,3 and Claude Prigent*^,1,2

¹CNRS, Unité Mixte de Recherche UMR6290, ²Université de Rennes 1, Institut de Génétique et Développement de Rennes, UEB, 35000 Rennes, France and ³Department of Hygiene and Physiology, Military Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Warsaw, Poland

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.

Keywords

Aurora-A, Eg2, Ipl1, cell-free extract, Xenopus laevis, TPX2, spindle assembly