Laboratory of Cell and Developmental Biology, Graduate School of Bioscience, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Nagatsuta, Midori-ku, Yokohama 226-8501, Japan.
J Cell Sci. 2010 Nov 15;123(Pt 22):3978-88. doi: 10.1242/jcs.076315.
Aurora, an essential mitotic kinase, is highly conserved during evolution. Most vertebrates have at least two Aurora kinases, Aurora-A and Aurora-B, which have distinct functions in the centrosome-spindle and inner centromere-midbody, respectively. However, some non-vertebrate deuterostomes have only a single Aurora. It remains to be verified whether the single Aurora performs the same functions as vertebrate Auroras A and B combined. We have isolated a cDNA of a single Aurora (ApAurora) from the echinoderm starfish, Asterina pectinifera, and show that ApAurora displays most features of both Aurora-A and Aurora-B in starfish oocytes and early embryos. Furthermore, ApAurora that is stably expressed in HeLa cells can substitute for both human Aurora-A and Aurora-B when either is reduced by RNAi. A single ApAurora thus has properties of both Aurora-A and Aurora-B in starfish eggs and HeLa cells. Together with phylogenetic analysis indicating that ApAurora forms a clade with all types of vertebrate Auroras and single Auroras of non-vertebrate deuterostomes, our observations support the idea that the single Aurora found in non-vertebrate deuterostomes represents the ancestor that gave rise to various types of vertebrate Auroras. This study thus provides functional evidence for phylogenetic considerations.
极光激酶是一种必需的有丝分裂激酶，在进化过程中高度保守。大多数脊椎动物至少有两种极光激酶，Aurora-A 和 Aurora-B，它们分别在中心体-纺锤体和内着丝粒-中体中具有不同的功能。然而，一些非脊椎后口动物只有一种极光激酶。单一极光激酶是否执行与脊椎动物 Auroras A 和 B 相同的功能仍有待验证。我们从棘皮动物海星 Asterina pectinifera 中分离出了一种单一极光激酶（ApAurora）的 cDNA，并表明 ApAurora 在海星卵母细胞和早期胚胎中显示出了 Aurora-A 和 Aurora-B 的大多数特征。此外，在稳定表达 HeLa 细胞中的 ApAurora 可以替代 RNAi 降低的人 Aurora-A 和 Aurora-B。因此，单一的 ApAurora 在海星卵和 HeLa 细胞中具有 Aurora-A 和 Aurora-B 的特性。与系统发育分析表明 ApAurora 与所有类型的脊椎动物 Auroras 和非脊椎后口动物的单一 Auroras 形成一个分支一起，我们的观察结果支持这样一种观点，即在非脊椎后口动物中发现的单一极光激酶代表了产生各种类型脊椎动物极光激酶的祖先。这项研究因此为系统发育考虑提供了功能证据。
