Aurora Kinase

Aurora kinases are a family of serine-threonine kinases of three highly homologous members, including aurora A kinase, aurora B kinase and aurora C kinase, which are responsible for chromosome assembly and segregation during mitosis. Aurora kinases are characterized by two domains: a regulatory domain in the NH2 terminus and a catalytic domain in the COOH terminus, in which an A-Box and a D-Box found correspondingly in each domain are responsible for protein degradation. Aurora A kinase plays an important role in centrosome function and duplication, mitotic entry and bipolar spindle assembly; while Aurora B kinase is the catalytic component of the chromosomal passenger complex regulating the accurate segregation of the chromatids at mitosis, histone modification and cytokinesis. Aurora C kinase is less studied and expressed restrictedly in the testes.