Auxin-induced degradation of the aurora A kinase, AIR-1, in C. elegans does not prevent assembly of bipolar meiotic spindles

TL;DR

This study shows that removing the AIR-1 kinase in C. elegans embryos does not stop the formation of bipolar meiotic spindles, but causes chromosome issues during cell division.

Contribution

The study reveals that AIR-1 is not essential for bipolar spindle assembly in acentrosomal meiosis in C. elegans.

Findings

AIR-1 depletion in C. elegans embryos does not prevent bipolar meiotic spindle formation.

An increase in lagging chromosomes was observed during anaphase in AIR-1-depleted embryos.

Abstract

Chromosome segregation during mitosis and male meiosis is mediated by centrosomal spindles that require the activity of the aurora A kinase, whereas female meiotic spindles of many species are acentrosomal. We addressed the role of the
C. elegans
aurora A kinase,
AIR-1
, in acentrosomal spindle assembly by generating a strain in which
AIR-1
is tagged with both an auxin-induced degron and HALO tag. The meiotic spindle pole marker,
MEI-1
, and chromosomes were labeled with GFP and mCH::histone respectively. All meiotic spindles were bipolar in
AIR-1
depleted embryos, however an increase in lagging chromosomes was observed during anaphase.

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