The Influence of Catalysis on Mad2 Activation Dynamics

Mad2 is a key component of the spindle assembly checkpoint, a safety device ensuring faithful sister chromatid separation in mitosis. The target of Mad2 is Cdc20, an activator of the anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C). Mad2 binding to Cdc20 is a complex reaction that entails the conformational conversion of Mad2 from an open (O-Mad2) to a closed (C-Mad2) conformer. Previously, it has been hypothesized that the conversion of O-Mad2 is accelerated by its conformational dimerization with C-Mad2. This hypothesis, known as the Mad2-template hypothesis, is based on the unproven assumption that the natural conversion of O-Mad2 required to bind Cdc20 is slow. Here, we provide evidence for this fundamental assumption and demonstrate that conformational dimerization of Mad2 accelerates the rate of Mad2 binding to Cdc20. On the basis of our measurements, we developed a set of rate equations that deliver excellent predictions of experimental binding curves under a variety of different conditions. Our results strongly suggest that the interaction of Mad2 with Cdc20 is rate limiting for activation of the spindle checkpoint. Conformational dimerization of Mad2 is essential to accelerate Cdc20 binding, but it does not modify the equilibrium of the Mad2:Cdc20 interaction, i.e., it is purely catalytic. These results surpass previously formulated objections to the Mad2-template model and predict that the release of Mad2 from Cdc20 is an energy-driven process. : Mitosis, the partition of chromosomes from a mother cell to the two daughter cells, is based on the formation of attachments between chromosomes and the mitotic spindle. Cells enter mitosis with replicated chromosomes (sister chromatids) that are held together by a cohesive force. Upon attachment of the sister chromatids to the mitotic spindle, the cohesive force that holds them is removed, and the sisters are parted to opposite poles of the spindle. It is essential for the long-term viability of cells that chromosomes not be lost in the process. For this purpose, cells have evolved a molecular device (the spindle assembly checkpoint or SAC), which prevents loss of sister chromatid cohesion until all sister chromatids are properly attached to the mitotic spindle. An outstanding question concerns the way the SAC signal is amplified away from chromosomes that are not yet attached to the spindle. Such an amplification mechanism has been predicted on the fact that as few as a single unattached kinetochore is able to prevent sister chromatid cohesion. In this paper, we show that the properties of the SAC protein Mad2 are ideally suited to provide a mechanism of amplification to the SAC. The reconstitution in vitro of key reactions of the spindle assembly checkpoint reveals the presence of catalysis and autocatalysis during checkpoint activation.