Cell-cycle dependent phosphorylation of yeast pericentrin regulates γ-TuSC-mediated microtubule nucleation

Abstract
Article and author information
Metrics

Abstract

Budding yeast Spc110, a member of γ-tubulin complex receptor family (γ-TuCR), recruits γ-tubulin complexes to microtubule (MT) organizing centers (MTOCs). Biochemical studies suggest that Spc110 facilitates higher-order γ-tubulin complex assembly (Kollman et al., 2010). Nevertheless the molecular basis for this activity and the regulation are unclear. Here we show that Spc110 phosphorylated by Mps1 and Cdk1 activates γ-TuSC oligomerization and MT nucleation in a cell cycle dependent manner. Interaction between the N-terminus of the γ-TuSC subunit Spc98 and Spc110 is important for this activity. Besides the conserved CM1 motif in γ-TuCRs (Sawin et al., 2004), a second motif that we named Spc110/Pcp1 motif (SPM) is also important for MT nucleation. The activating Mps1 and Cdk1 sites lie between SPM and CM1 motifs. Most organisms have both SPM-CM1 (Spc110/Pcp1/PCNT) and CM1-only (Spc72/Mto1/Cnn/CDK5RAP2/ myomegalin) types of γ-TuCRs. The two types of γ-TuCRs contain distinct but conserved C-terminal MTOC targeting domains.

Article and author information

Author details

Tien-chen Lin

Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Annett Neuner

Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Yvonne T Schlosser

Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Elmar Schiebel

Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

For correspondence
e.schiebel@zmbh.uni-heidelberg.de

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Annette ND Scharf

Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Lisa Weber

Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Copyright

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.