This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Cell division is a complex process. At the heart of this complexity is a membraneless organelle called the centrosome, which is made up of more than 200 components.
It is responsible for clustering mitotic spindles, threadlike structures needed to separate genetic material. It has long remained unclear which parts of the centrosome are necessary and sufficient for spindle assembly. Researchers at the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology (MCB), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), have developed a technique called Light-Induced Spindle Activation (LISA), which can reversibly activate Aurora A kinase, a key centrosomal enzyme critical for spindle assembly.
The technique allows scientists to study centrosomes and spindle assembly in greater detail. It also raises the possibility of rescuing cell division by artificially manipulating these components and processes when they fail. The study was published in EMBO Reports.
Scientists believed that Aurora A is activated through clustering, a process promoted in cells by its evolutionarily conserved scaffold, Cep192. Previous work has shown that Aurora A-coated beads can trigger microtubule nucleation in frog egg extracts; however, Cep192 is required for Aurora A activation in this setting. With LISA, researchers can now reversibly induce and study Aurora A clustering using blue light, independently of Cep192, across a range of cell types.
LISA can also be applied directly in living cells, whereas the bead-based method is largely restricted to cell extracts. To develop this method, Sachin Kotak, associate professor at MCB, and his team identified a novel application for an existing technique called LARIAT, which is typically used to inhibit proteins by inducing their clustering with light. Kotak's team realized that this light-induced clustering could instead be harnessed to activate Aurora A kinase.
LARIAT uses the plant proteins CRY2 and CIB1, which can be induced to cluster in response to blue light. The researchers first engineered human cells to express a fusion protein in which Aurora A kinase was linked to CRY2. When blue light is shone on the fusion protein, CRY2 undergoes a conformational change that promotes its interaction with CIB1.
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