A DNA damage checkpoint meets the cell cycle engine
Weinert, T.
Science 277(5331): 1450-1451
1997
ISSN/ISBN: 0036-8075 PMID: 9304216 Document Number: 472769
Changes in cell physiology, especially damage to DNA, halt the cell cycle either before DNA replication in G1, termed the G1 checkpoint, or before mitosis in G2, the G2-M checkpoint. In numerous cell types, DNA damage response pathways result in arrest by regulation of Cdk-cyclin--dubbed the cell cycle's "engine" because of its importance in cell cycle regulation--via checkpoint proteins, which detect damage and transduce an inhibitory signal. Until recently it was unclear whether Cdc2, a leading member of this Cdk family and a key mitotic activator in yeast, plays a part in arrest in G2 after damage, or how the checkpoint proteins send a signal to cause arrest. In the past year, however, the functions of both Cdc2 and checkpoint proteins have become clearer, and an increasingly detailed hypothesis for a checkpoint pathway has emerged.