Abstract
Aurora kinases are serine/threonine protein kinases with essential roles in cell division through eukaryotes. They regulate the interaction between cytoskelton and chromosomes at the kinetochore, the spindle assembly and the cytokinesis. Although functions of animal and yeast Aurora kinases have been analyzed in detail, plant Aurora kinases are not characterized in depth. We identified three Aurora kinase orthologs in Arabidopsis thaliana and designated AtAUR1, AtAUR2, and AtAUR3. The kinase domain of AtAUR1 shares 95% and 63% amino acid identity with AtAUR2 and AtAUR3, respectively. All three AtAURs could phosphorylate serine 10 of histone H3. To reveal the localization of AtAURs during plant mitosis, dynamic analyses were performed using GFP-fused proteins. The localization of AtAURs was different from that of animal Aurora kinases, reflecting the functional difference in cell division between plant and animal.
