Studies on post - translational modifications of aurora kinases

Abstract

Post-translational modification (PTM) is covalent modification of proteins by addition of functional groups or even a protein, proteolytic cleavage of regulatory subunits or degradation of entire protein. Apart from increasing the functional diversity, PTM plays role in the stability of proteins, localisation of proteins and it also affect the protein-protein interactions. The Human genome has about 20,000 to 25,000 protein encoding genes. The proteome of humans has more than 1 million proteins (International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium, 2004). According to the given fact, one gene must be having information for the synthesis of more than one protein. This diversification is taken care by various molecular processes of cells. These processes vary from mRNA editing, alternative splicing, use of alternate promoters, post-translational modification. At each process mentioned in the central dogma, there are mechanism to increase the variation in the final product and ultimately leading to a proteome with diverse functional role (Boyer, 2006).