SPC24

SPC24 is a highly divergent kinetochore component identified in apicomplexan parasites, forming part of a multi-compartment kinetochore assembly involved in spindle attachment and chromosome segregation (PMID:36006241). It was recognized as one of 13 previously unknown apicomplexan kinetochore proteins, situated within a complex organized into at least four discrete compartments that differ in their biochemical interactions, subkinetochore localizations, and evolutionary rates across the phylum (PMID:36006241). Beyond this identification and its placement within the kinetochore complex, nothing further about SPC24 is characterized in the available corpus.

1. 2022 Medium

   Before this work the apicomplexan kinetochore was largely undefined; identifying SPC24 as a bona fide component established that these parasites possess a divergent but organized kinetochore, resolving where SPC24 fits within chromosome segregation machinery.

   Evidence Interactomics combined with deep homology searches and fluorescence-based subkinetochore localization in Toxoplasma gondii and Plasmodium berghei

   PMID:36006241

   Open questions at the time

   • SPC24-specific interactions and localization were not separated from complex-level results
   • No direct functional or knockout data establishing SPC24's individual role in spindle attachment or segregation
   • No structural model or defined binding partners for SPC24 itself