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Block to DNA replication in meiotic maturation: a unified view for a robust arrest of cell cycle in oocytes and somatic cells
Author(s) -
Kubota Yumiko,
Takisawa Haruhiko
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
bioessays
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.175
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1521-1878
pISSN - 0265-9247
DOI - 10.1002/bies.10264
Subject(s) - dna replication , licensing factor , biology , somatic cell , microbiology and biotechnology , control of chromosome duplication , dna synthesis , cell cycle , pre replication complex , meiosis , dna re replication , origin recognition complex , cell cycle checkpoint , eukaryotic dna replication , replication factor c , genetics , dna , cell , gene
Under certain conditions, the cell cycle can be arrested for a long period of time. Vertebrate oocytes are arrested at G 2 phase, while somatic cells arrest at G 0 phase. In both cells, nuclei have lost the ability to initiate DNA synthesis. In a pair of recently published papers,1,2 Méchali and colleagues and Coué and colleagues have clarified how frog oocytes prevent untimely DNA synthesis during the long G 2 arrest. Intriguingly, they found only Cdc6 is responsible for the inability of immature oocytes to replicate DNA. Cdc6 is a key component for replication licensing, and for G 0 cells to re‐enter the proliferative stage. Strikingly similar strategies for preventing the untimely replication in both cells suggest that the suppression of replication licensing is a universal mechanism for securing the prolonged arrest of the cell cycle. BioEssays 25:313–316, 2003. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.