Cubism and the cell cycle: the many faces of the APC/C

J Pines - Nature reviews Molecular cell biology, 2011 - nature.com
Nature reviews Molecular cell biology, 2011nature.com
One does not often look to analytic cubism for insights into the control of the cell cycle, but
Pablo Picasso beautifully encapsulated the fundamentals when he said that “every act of
creation is, first of all, an act of destruction”. The rapid destruction of specific cell cycle
regulators at just the right moment in the cell cycle ensures that daughter cells receive an
equal and identical set of chromosomes from their mother and that DNA replication always
follows mitosis. Remarkably, one protein complex is responsible for this surgical precision …
Abstract
One does not often look to analytic cubism for insights into the control of the cell cycle, but Pablo Picasso beautifully encapsulated the fundamentals when he said that “every act of creation is, first of all, an act of destruction”. The rapid destruction of specific cell cycle regulators at just the right moment in the cell cycle ensures that daughter cells receive an equal and identical set of chromosomes from their mother and that DNA replication always follows mitosis. Remarkably, one protein complex is responsible for this surgical precision, the APC/C (anaphase-promoting complex, also known as the cyclosome). The APC/C is tightly regulated by its co-activators and by the spindle assembly checkpoint.
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