Kinesin superfamily of microtubule- based motor orchestrates a variety of cellular proc- esses. Recent availability of mammalian genomes has enabled analyses of kinesins on the whole ge- nome. Here we present a novel full-length kinesin prediction program (FKPP) for mammalian kinesin gene discovery based on a comparative genomics approach. Contrary to previous predictions of 94 kinesins, we identify a total of 134 potentially kinesin genes from mammalian genomes, including 45 from mouse, 45 from rat and 44 from human. In addition, FKPP synthesizes 25 potentially full-length mam- malian kinesins based on the partial sequences in the database. Surprisingly, FKPP reveals that full-length human CENP-E contains 2701 aa rather than 2663 aa in the database. Experimentation using sequence specific antibody and cDNA sequencing of human CENP-E validates the accuracy of FKPP. Given the remarkable computing efficiency and accuracy of FKPP, we reclassify the mammalian kinesin super- family. Since current databases contain many in- complete sequences, FKPP may provide a novel approach for molecular delineation of kinesins and other protein families.
Spindle checkpoint is an important biochemical signaling cascade during mitosis which monitors the fidelity of chromosome segregation, and is mediated by protein kinases Mpsl and Bubl/BubRl. Our recent studies show that kinesin-related motor protein CENP-E interacts with BubRl and participates in spindle checkpoint signaling. To elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying spindle checkpoint signaling, we carried out proteomic dissection of human cell kinetochore and revealed protein kinase TTK, human homologue of yeast Mpsl. Our studies show that TTK is localized to the kinetochore of human cells, and interacts with CENP-E, suggesting that TTK may play an important role in chromosome segregation during mitosis.
