The serine/threonine kinase Pim is known to promote cell cycle progression and to inhibit apoptosis leading to tumorigenesis. However, the precise mechanisms remain unclear. We show, herein,

The molecular mechanism responsible that determines cell fate after mitotic slippage is unclear. Here we investigate the post-mitotic effects of different mitotic aberrations—misaligned chromosomes produced by CENP-E inhibition and monopolar spindles resulting from Eg5 inhibition. Eg5 inhibition in cells with an impaired spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC) induces polyploidy through cytokinesis failure without a strong anti-proliferative effect. In contrast, CENP-E inhibition causes p53-mediated post-mitotic apoptosis triggered by chromosome missegregation. Pharmacological studies reveal that aneuploidy caused by the CENP-E inhibitor, Compound-A, in SAC-attenuated cells causes substantial proteotoxic stress and DNA damage. Polyploidy caused by the Eg5 inhibitor does not produce this effect. Furthermore, p53-mediated post-mitotic apoptosis is accompanied by aneuploidy-associated DNA damage response and unfolded protein response activation. Because Compound-A causes p53 accumulation and antitumour activity in an SAC-impaired xenograft model, CENP-E inhibitors could be potential anticancer drugs effective against SAC-impaired tumours.

CDC-like kinase phosphorylation of serine/arginine-rich proteins is central to RNA splicing reactions. Yet, the genomic network of CDC-like kinase-dependent RNA processing events remains poorly defined. Here, we explore the connectivity of genomic CDC-like kinase splicing functions by applying graduated, short-exposure, pharmacological CDC-like kinase inhibition using a novel small molecule (T3) with very high potency, selectivity, and cell-based stability. Using RNA-Seq, we define CDC-like kinase-responsive alternative splicing events, the large majority of which monotonically increase or decrease with increasing CDC-like kinase inhibition. We show that distinct RNA-binding motifs are associated with T3 response in skipped exons. Unexpectedly, we observe dose-dependent conjoined gene transcription, which is associated with motif enrichment in the last and second exons of upstream and downstream partners, respectively. siRNA knockdown of CLK2-associated genes significantly increases conjoined gene formation. Collectively, our results reveal an unexpected role for CDC-like kinase in conjoined gene formation, via regulation of 3′-end processing and associated splicing factors.

SummaryWe previously reported that the cvfA gene is a virulence regulatory gene in Staphylococcus aureus. Here, we identified a novel gene named sarZ that acts as a multicopy suppressor of decreased haemolysin production in the cvfA deletion mutant. The amount of sarZ transcripts was decreased in the cvfA mutant. The sarZ-deletion mutant produced less haemolysin and attenuated virulence in a silkworm-infection model and a mouse-infection model. The amino acid sequence of the sarZ gene product had 19% identity with the transcription factor MarR in Escherichia coli, and the internal region contained a winged helixturn-helix motif (wHTH), a known DNA binding domain. Purified recombinant SarZ protein had binding affinity for the promoter region of the hla gene that encodes a-haemolysin. SarZ mutant proteins with an amino acid substitution in the N-terminal region or in the wHTH motif had significantly decreased DNA binding. The mutated sarZ genes encoding SarZ mutant proteins with a low affinity for DNA did not complement the decreased haemolysin production or the attenuated killing ability against silkworms in the sarZ mutant. These results suggest that the DNA binding activity of the SarZ protein is required for virulence in S. aureus.