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一个unexpected timer for cell division

A serendipitous observation has revealed that cells make several versions of a key protein needed for cell division. The ratio of these protein isoforms influences how long division can be delayed when errors arise.
  1. Silke Hauf

    1. Silke Haufis in the Department of Biological Sciences, Fralin Life Sciences Institute, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA.

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Cells have a safety mechanism that delays cell division when chromosomes are not properly oriented for their correct distribution into daughter cells. When engaged, this safety mechanism inhibits the protein CDC20, whose activity is crucial for completing division, and this inhibition provides a window of opportunity for errors to be fixed.Writing inNature, Tsang and Cheeseman1report that cells produce several versions (isoforms) of CDC20 that differ in their susceptibility to inhibition. These isoforms arise when the messenger RNA encoding CDC20 undergoes translation — a process that typically produces only one version of a protein. Mutations found in cancer cells modify the isoform ratio to shorten the length of the delay, even if errors have not been fixed, which probably promotes malignancy.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586 - 023 - 01355 - 9

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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