The nucleus serves as the pacemaker for the cell cycle

eLife

James E Ferrell Jr¹  Tim Stearns²  Oshri Afanzar³  Garrison K Buss⁴ 

[1] Department of Genetics, Stanford Medicine, Stanford, United States;Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, United States;Department of Chemical and Systems Biology, Stanford Medicine, Stanford, United States;Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Stanford Medicine, Stanford, United States;

关键词: mitosis;    Cdk1;    trigger waves;    bistability;    pacemaker;    microtubules;   

DOI  :  10.7554/eLife.59989

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Mitosis is a dramatic process that affects all parts of the cell. It is driven by an oscillator whose various components are localized in the nucleus, centrosome, and cytoplasm. In principle, the cellular location with the fastest intrinsic rhythm should act as a pacemaker for the process. Here we traced the waves of tubulin polymerization and depolymerization that occur at mitotic entry and exit in Xenopus egg extracts back to their origins. We found that mitosis was commonly initiated at sperm-derived nuclei and their accompanying centrosomes. The cell cycle was ~20% faster at these initiation points than in the slowest regions of the extract. Nuclei produced from phage DNA, which did not possess centrosomes, also acted as trigger wave sources, but purified centrosomes in the absence of nuclei did not. We conclude that the nucleus accelerates mitotic entry and propose that it acts as a pacemaker for cell cycle.

【 授权许可】

Unknown