The structural basis of the multi-step allosteric activation of Aurora B kinase
Abstract
Aurora B, together with IN-box, the C-terminal part of INCENP, forms an enzymatic complex that ensures faithful cell division. The [Aurora B/IN-box] complex is activated by autophosphorylation in the Aurora B activation loop and in IN-box, but it is not clear how these phosphorylations activate the enzyme. We used a combination of experimental and computational studies to investigate the effects of phosphorylation on the molecular dynamics and structure of [Aurora B/IN-box]. In addition, we generated partially phosphorylated intermediates to analyze the contribution of each phosphorylation independently. We found that the dynamics of Aurora and IN-box are interconnected, and IN-box plays both positive and negative regulatory roles depending on the phosphorylation status of the enzyme complex. Phosphorylation in the activation loop of Aurora B occurs intramolecularly and prepares the enzyme complex for activation, but two phosphorylated sites are synergistically responsible for full enzyme activity.
Data availability
All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files. The mass spectrometry proteomics data are available through the ProteomeXchange Consortium via the PRIDE partner repository with the dataset identifier PXD038935.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Norges Forskningsråd (187615)
- Dario Segura-Peña
- Oda Hovet
- Hemanga Gogoi
- Stine Malene Hansen Wøien
- Nikolina Sekulic
Norges Forskningsråd (262695)
- Oda Hovet
- Manuel Carrer
- Michele Cascella
Norwegian Supercomputing Program (NN4654K)
- Oda Hovet
- Manuel Carrer
- Michele Cascella
Norges Forskningsråd (325528)
- Nikolina Sekulic
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R35-GM130302)
- Jennine Dawicki-McKenna
- Ben E Black
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (GM108360)
- Jennine Dawicki-McKenna
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
© 2023, Segura-Peña et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
Metrics
-
- 2,300
- views
-
- 341
- downloads
-
- 2
- citations
Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.
Download links
Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)
Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)
Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)
Further reading
-
- Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
- Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
Dynamic conformational and structural changes in proteins and protein complexes play a central and ubiquitous role in the regulation of protein function, yet it is very challenging to study these changes, especially for large protein complexes, under physiological conditions. Here, we introduce a novel isobaric crosslinker, Qlinker, for studying conformational and structural changes in proteins and protein complexes using quantitative crosslinking mass spectrometry. Qlinkers are small and simple, amine-reactive molecules with an optimal extended distance of ~10 Å, which use MS2 reporter ions for relative quantification of Qlinker-modified peptides derived from different samples. We synthesized the 2-plex Q2linker and showed that the Q2linker can provide quantitative crosslinking data that pinpoints key conformational and structural changes in biosensors, binary and ternary complexes composed of the general transcription factors TBP, TFIIA, and TFIIB, and RNA polymerase II complexes.
-
- Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
- Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine
Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) have great potential to be used as alternatives to embryonic stem cells (hESCs) in regenerative medicine and disease modelling. In this study, we characterise the proteomes of multiple hiPSC and hESC lines derived from independent donors and find that while they express a near-identical set of proteins, they show consistent quantitative differences in the abundance of a subset of proteins. hiPSCs have increased total protein content, while maintaining a comparable cell cycle profile to hESCs, with increased abundance of cytoplasmic and mitochondrial proteins required to sustain high growth rates, including nutrient transporters and metabolic proteins. Prominent changes detected in proteins involved in mitochondrial metabolism correlated with enhanced mitochondrial potential, shown using high-resolution respirometry. hiPSCs also produced higher levels of secreted proteins, including growth factors and proteins involved in the inhibition of the immune system. The data indicate that reprogramming of fibroblasts to hiPSCs produces important differences in cytoplasmic and mitochondrial proteins compared to hESCs, with consequences affecting growth and metabolism. This study improves our understanding of the molecular differences between hiPSCs and hESCs, with implications for potential risks and benefits for their use in future disease modelling and therapeutic applications.