Abstract
During mitosis, cyclin B is extremely dynamic and although it is concentrated at the centrosomes and spindle microtubules (MTs) in organisms ranging from yeast to humans, the mechanisms that determine its localisation are poorly understood. To understand how cyclin B is targeted to different locations in the cell we have isolated proteins that interact with cyclin B in Drosophila embryo extracts. Here we show that cyclin B interacts with the molecular chaperone Hsp90 and with the MT-associated protein (MAP) Mini spindles (Msps; the Drosophila orthologue of XMAP215/ch-TOG). Both Hsp90 and Msps are concentrated at centrosomes and spindles, and we show that Hsp90, but not Msps, is required for the efficient localisation of cyclin B to these structures. We find that, unlike what happens with other cell cycle proteins, Hsp90 is not required to stabilise cyclin B or Msps during mitosis. Thus, we propose that Hsp90 plays a novel role in regulating the localisation of cyclin B and Msps during mitosis.
