Aurora-A condensation mediated by BuGZ aids its mitotic centrosome functions

Hui Zheng; Qiaoqiao Zhang; Xing Liu; Fan Shi; Fengrui Yang; Shengqi Xiang; Hao Jiang

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2024.109785

Aurora-A condensation mediated by BuGZ aids its mitotic centrosome functions

iScience. 2024 Apr 18;27(5):109785. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.109785. eCollection 2024 May 17.

Authors

Hui Zheng^{1

2}, Qiaoqiao Zhang^{1

2}, Xing Liu³, Fan Shi⁴, Fengrui Yang³, Shengqi Xiang⁴, Hao Jiang¹

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory for Aging and Cancer Research, Frontiers Science Center Disease-related Molecular Network, State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Health and Multimorbidity and National Clinical Research Center for Geriatrics, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan, China.
² Key Laboratory of Gene Engineering of the Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, Guangdong, China.
³ MOE Key Laboratory for Membraneless Organelles and Cellular Dynamics, Hefei National Center for Cross-disciplinary Sciences, University of Science & Technology of China, School of Life Sciences, Hefei, China.
⁴ MOE Key Lab for Cellular Dynamics, School of Life Sciences, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230027, China.

Abstract

Centrosomes composed of centrioles and the pericentriolar material (PCM), serve as the platform for microtubule polymerization during mitosis. Despite some centriole and PCM proteins have been reported to utilize liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) to perform their mitotic functions, whether and how centrosomal kinases exert the coacervation in mitosis is still unknown. Here we reveal that Aurora-A, one key centrosomal kinase in regulating centrosome formation and functions, undergoes phase separation in vitro or in centrosomes from prophase, mediated by the conserved positive-charged residues inside its intrinsic disordered region (IDR) and the intramolecular interaction between its N- and C-terminus. Aurora-A condensation affects centrosome maturation, separation, initial spindle formation from the spindle pole and its kinase activity. Moreover, BuGZ interacts with Aurora-A to enhance its LLPS and centrosome functions. Thus, we propose that Aurora-A collaborates with BuGZ to exhibit the property of LLPS in centrosomes to control its centrosome-dependent functions from prophase.

Keywords: Biophysics; Cell biology; Functional aspects of cell biology.