The CLIP-170 orthologue Bik1p and positioning the mitotic spindle in yeast

Abstract

Bik1p is the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae representative of the CLIP-170 family of microtubule plus-end tracking proteins. Bik1p shares a number of similarities with its mammalian counterpart CLIP-170, including an important role in dynein function. However, Bik1p and CLIP-170 differ in several significant ways, including the mechanisms utilized to track microtubule plus ends. In addition to presenting functional comparisons between Bik1p and CLIP-170, we provide sequence analyses that reveal previously unrecognized similarities between Bik1p and its animal counterparts. We examine in detail what is known about the functions of Bik1p and consider the various roles that Bik1p plays in positioning the yeast mitotic spindle. This chapter also highlights several recent findings, including the contribution of Bik1p to the yeast mating pathway.