High impact information on tacc

• Centrosomes and cancer: lessons from a TACC [1].
• Members of the transforming acidic coiled-coil (TACC) family of proteins have been implicated in cancer and are concentrated at centrosomes, where they regulate microtubule stability [1].
• The acentrosomal poles contain at least two proteins, Mini-spindles (Msps) and D-TACC, which are also associated with mitotic centrosomes [2].
• We show that a subpopulation of the total Aurora A is present in a complex with D-TACC, which is a substrate for the kinase [3].
• We show that D-TACC is essential for normal spindle function in the early embryo; if D-TACC function is perturbed by mutation or antibody injection, the microtubules emanating from centrosomes in embryos are short and chromosomes often fail to segregate properly [4].

Biological context of tacc

• We show that Drosophila melanogaster TACC (D-TACC) is phosphorylated on Ser863 exclusively at centrosomes during mitosis in an Aurora A-dependent manner [5].
• The transforming acidic coiled-coil-containing (TACC) proteins all appear to play important roles in cell division and cellular organisation in both embryonic and somatic systems [6].
• In all species examined thus far, perturbations of TACC proteins lead to disruptions of cell cycle progression and/or embryonic lethality [7].

Anatomical context of tacc

• We propose that one of the functions of Aurora A kinase is to direct centrosomal organization such that D-TACC complexed to the MSPS/XMAP215 microtubule-associated protein may be recruited, and thus modulate the behavior of astral microtubules [3].
• We propose that D-TACC and Msps normally cooperate to stabilize centrosomal microtubules by binding to their minus ends and binding to their plus ends as they grow out from the centrosome [8].

Enzymatic interactions of tacc

• We also demonstrated that Aurora-A phosphorylates maskin on a Ser residue conserved in transforming acidic coiled coil proteins from Drosophila to human [9].

Co-localisations of tacc

• D-TACC colocalized with Cnn at these particles [10].

Other interactions of tacc

• Drosophila Aurora A kinase is required to localize D-TACC to centrosomes and to regulate astral microtubules [3].
• If D-TACC levels are reduced, Msps does not concentrate at the centrosomes efficiently and the centrosomal microtubules appear to be destabilized [8].

References