First published online October 13, 2004
Journal of Cell Science 117, 2203e (2004)
© The Company of Biologists Limited
Mitotic kinase exerts independence
It is tempting to assume that lessons learnt in one organism apply to another – particularly when both are yeasts and it's the cell cycle you're talking about. On p. 5293, Kathleen Gould and co-workers show why such assumptions are dangerous, demonstrating that an important mitotic kinase functions differently in the two systems. Budding yeast Gin4-family kinases are important for mitotic progression and regulate cytokinesis by directly interacting with septins – filamentous GTPases that form rings at the division site. Gould and co-workers find that the fission yeast Gin4 orthologue Cdr2p also controls mitotic entry and cytokinesis but functions entirely independently of septins: it has a distinct localization pattern, septin mutations do not affect Cdr2p function and vice versa. The authors also present a systematic structure-function analysis of fission yeast Cdr2p, dissecting its distinct N-terminal catalytic domain and C-terminal targeting domain. Their work thus provides significant insight into the function of the protein as well as an important example of functional divergence of orthologous kinases in the two yeasts.
Related articles in JCS:
- The GIN4 family kinase, Cdr2p, acts independently of septins in fission yeast
- Jennifer L. Morrell, Connie B. Nichols, and Kathleen L. Gould
JCS 2004 117: 5293-5302.
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