Stu-71air-2 is a C-elegans aurora homologue essential for chromosome segregation during embryonic and post-embryonic development

We have isolated a new sterile uncoordinated C. elegans mutant, stu-7, which is defective in post-embryonic cell divisions in a regionally-specific fashion. The anterior of the worm is relatively unaffected whereas the mid-body and/or posterior are markedly thin, often resulting in worms having a central 'waist'. We have cloned stu-7 and found that it encodes a member of the recently expanding aurora sub-family of serine/threonine kinases. Elimination of maternal as well as zygotic stu-7 expression reveals that stn-7 is essential for mitosis from the first embryonic cell cycle onwards and is required for chromosome segregation though not for centrosome separation or for setting up a bipolar spindle. Multicopy expression of stu-7 also causes mitotic defects, suggesting that the level of this protein must be tightly controlled in order to maintain genetic stability during development. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.