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Aurora B promotes the CENP-T–CENP-W interaction to guide accurate chromosome segregation in mitosis 
Wei Liu1,2,† , Zhen Dou1,3,† , Chunyue Wang1 , Gangyin Zhao1 , Fengge Wu1 , Chunli Wang4 , Felix Aikhionbare2 , Mingliang Ye4 , Divine Mensah Sedzro1 , Zhenye Yang1 , Chuanhai Fu1 , Zhikai Wang1,2,3 , Xinjiao Gao1 , Xuebiao Yao1,3 , Xiaoyu Song1,3 , Xing Liu1,3,*
1MOE Key Laboratory for Cellular Dynamics, Center for Advanced Interdisciplinary Science and Biomedicine of IHM, University of Science and Technology of China School of Life Sciences, Hefei 230027, China
2Keck Center for Cellular Dynamics and Organoids Plasticity, Atlanta, GA 30310, USA
3Anhui Key Laboratory for Cellular Dynamics and Chemical Biology, Hefei National Research Center for Interdisciplinary Sciences at the Microscale, Hefei 230026, China
4National Chromatographic Research and Analysis Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China
These authors contributed equally to this work
*Correspondence to:Xing Liu , Email:xing1017@ustc.edu.cn
J Mol Cell Biol, Volume 16, Issue 2, February 2024, mjae001,  https://doi.org/10.1093/jmcb/mjae001
Keyword: mitosis, kinetochore, Aurora B, CENP-T, CENP-W, phosphorylation

Accurate chromosome segregation in mitosis depends on kinetochores that connect centromeric chromatin to spindle microtubules. Centromeres are captured by individual microtubules via a kinetochore constitutive centromere-associated network (CCAN) during chromosome segregation. CCAN contains 16 subunits, including CENP-W and CENP-T. However, the molecular recognition and mitotic regulation of the CCAN assembly remain elusive. Here, we revealed that CENP-W binds to the histone fold domain and an uncharacterized N-terminal region of CENP-T. Aurora B phosphorylates CENP-W at threonine 60, which enhances the interaction between CENP-W and CENP-T to ensure robust metaphase chromosome alignment and accurate chromosome segregation in mitosis. These findings delineate a conserved signaling cascade that integrates protein phosphorylation with CCAN integrity for the maintenance of genomic stability.