A new class of cyclin dependent kinase in Chlamydomonas is required for coupling cell size to cell division
- University of Florida, United States
- Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, United States
- Kansas State University, United States
Abstract
Proliferating cells actively control their size by mechanisms that are poorly understood. The unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii divides by multiple fission, wherein a 'counting' mechanism couples mother cell-size to cell division number allowing production of uniform-sized daughters. We identified a sizer protein, CDKG1, that acts through the retinoblastoma (RB) tumor suppressor pathway as a D-cyclin-dependent RB kinase to regulate mitotic counting. Loss of CDKG1 leads to fewer mitotic divisions and large daughters, while mis-expression of CDKG1 causes supernumerous mitotic divisions and small daughters. The concentration of nuclear-localized CDKG1 in pre-mitotic cells is set by mother cell size, and its progressive dilution and degradation with each round of cell division may provide a link between mother cell-size and mitotic division number. Cell-size-dependent accumulation of limiting cell cycle regulators such as CDKG1 is a potentially general mechanism for size control.
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© 2016, Li et al.
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A new class of cyclin dependent kinase in Chlamydomonas is required for coupling cell size to cell division
eLife 5:e10767.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.10767
