Identification of a cdk-activating kinase in fission yeast

We have identified a second cyclin-dependent kinase (cdk) in fission yeast, crk1, which encodes a 335 amino acid protein that is most closely related to the KIN28 gene product from Saccharomyces cerevisiae and to a cdk activating kinase (CAK) encoded by the MO15 gene from Xenopus laevis. crk1 is essential for viability and Delta crk1 cells arrest with septa and condensed chromatin. We show that Crk1 associates with the Mcs2 mitotic catastrophe suppressor, a cyclin H-like molecule, and overexpression of crk1 rescues the cell-cycle arrest defect of a mcs2-75 cdc2-3w cdc25-22 triple mutant at high temperature. The Crk1-Mcs2 complex possesses CAK activity in vitro in that it phosphorylates human Cdk2 on Thr160 which results in its activation in the presence of cyclin A. In addition Crk1-Mcs2 effectively phosphorylates a peptide corresponding to the C-terminal repeat domain (CTD) of RNA polymerase II. We demonstrate that crk1 is allelic to the mcs6 mitotic catastrophe suppressor and that the X.laevis MO15 gene rescues the cell-cycle arrest of an mcs6-13 cdc2-3w cdc25-22 at high temperature. Together these data suggest that the Crk1-Mcs2 complex is a CAK that interacts genetically with Cdc2 in fission yeast.