Structure, Roles and Inhibitors of a Mitotic Protein Kinase Haspin

摘要

Background: Haspin (haploid germ cell-specific nuclear protein kinase) is an atypical serine/threonine-protein kinase that was for a long time considered an inactive pseudokinase due to low degree of structural homology of Haspin with the 'classical' protein kinases. However, the discovery of Haspin-catalyzed phosphorylation of histone H3 at Thr3 residue unveiled importance of Haspin in mitosis and provided yet another link between mitotic phosphorylation pathways and chromatin modifications.