QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s):
Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents

First published online October 22, 2008
doi: 10.1242/10.1242/jcs.036855

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Wu, J. Q. Articles by Kornbluth, S. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Wu, J. Q. Articles by Kornbluth, S. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Across the meiotic divide – CSF activity in the post-Emi2/XErp1 era

Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA

^* Author for correspondence (e-mail: Kornb001{at}mc.duke.edu)

Accepted 11 September 2008

Vertebrate eggs are arrested at the metaphase stage of meiosis II. Only upon fertilization will the metaphase-II-arrested eggs exit meiosis II and enter interphase. In 1971, Masui and Markert injected egg extracts into a two-cell-stage embryo and found that the injected blastomere arrested at the next mitosis. On the basis of these observations, they proposed the existence of an activity present in the eggs that is responsible for meiosis-II arrest and can induce mitotic arrest, and named this activity cytostatic factor (CSF). Although the existence of CSF was hypothesized more than 35 years ago, its precise identity remained unclear until recently. The discovery of the Mos-MAPK pathway and characterization of the anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C) as a central regulator of M-phase exit provided the framework for a molecular understanding of CSF. These pathways have now been linked by the discovery and characterization of the protein Emi2, a meiotic APC/C inhibitor, the activity and stability of which are controlled by the Mos-MAPK pathway. Continued investigation into the mechanism of action and mode of regulation of Emi2 promises to shed light not only on CSF function, but also on the general principles of APC/C regulation and the control of protein function by MAPK pathways.

Key words: Anaphase-promoting complex, CSF, Cdc2–cyclin-B, Emi2, Mos

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. K. Cross and M. A. Powers Learning about cancer from frogs: analysis of mitotic spindles in Xenopus egg extracts Dis. Model. Mech., November 1, 2009; 2(11-12): 541 - 547. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]