Well my plan to use this blog as a regular record appears to have suffered from my procrastinatory tendencies. Here's another attempt.
I'm working on a protein complex called the chromosomal passenger complex (CPC). The CPC plays multiple roles during cell division (mitosis and cytokinesis), including controlling how duplicated chromosomes separate, and the finally separation of a cell into two daughter cells.
The CPC is formed of four core proteins: Aurora-B, Incenp, Survivin and Borealin. Aurora-B is the important one as far as function is concerned: it's a kinase, which basically means it reacts with other proteins in the cell. However, the other three members are required to ensure Aurora gets to the right place in the cell at the correct time, and disabling one of these proteins results in the failure of the cell division process. In addition there are two other proteins, TD-60 and Evi-5, which are believed to be part-time members of the CPC and are thought to be required for certain functions, but their function is not well understood.
I'm going to be investigating the localisation and function of some of these proteins in Drosophila Melanogaster AKA the fruit fly, with the help of some automated image analysis. A couple of people have already written packages for tracking chromosomes and centrosomes (microtubules), and, my grand plan is to develop this further to track members of the CPC throughout the cell cycle.
