Topic 7 - Cell Cycle Flashcards
What does inhibiting TSN nuclease activity has with inhibiting cell proliferation?
- functional miRNAs are degraded by TSN will promote G1/S phase transition in a cell
- by using CRISPR-Cas9 knockout of TSN inhibited cell cycle progression by upregulating miRNAs which down regulate mRNAs which normally encode proteins used in G1-S phase transition
The cell cycle consists of 3 main events:
- Cell Growth and Chromosome Replication
- Chromosome Segregation
- Cell division
How is the cell cycle regulated? and what is its goal?
- though internal and external signals (environmental conditions)
- controlled duplication producing identical DNA, organelles, membranes
What is Mitosis? How many N before and after mitsosis
- 4N to 2N (duplicated chromosomes segregated into daughter nuclei) - not separate cells yet
What is cytokinesis? What makes it different from mitosis?
- the cell with two sets of daughter nuclei already separated, will now divide itself into TWO CYTOPLASMIC DIVISIONS creating two cells
How long does the S phase take? what does it stand for?
- DNA Synthesis
- 10-12 hours in humans (half the time of cell cycle)
How long does M phase take? What does it stand for?
- Mitosis
- consists of TWO events: mitosis and cytokinesis
- 1 hour in mammals
What are the 4 phases in the Cell Cycle in Order?
- G1 (Interphase), S (Synthesis), G2 (Interphase 2,) M (mitosis and cytokinesis)
What is the speed of DNA replication during DNA (S)ynthesis?
- 83,333 bp/second
What is the role of Gap 1 and Gap 2?
- the interphase stages are there for environmental monitoring, to decide whether or not to go and replicate
What occurs after you START at the end of G1, start S phase?
- the cell is committed to replication; even if conditions become unfavourable or stimulating factors for the progression of cell cycle is removed
What are 3 reasons why Yeast are the perfect model system to study?
- divide rapidly with a small genome
- able to proliferate in the haploid state (each cell has one copy of the each gene) - advantage for mutation analysis
- Cdc genes have been identified (Cell-division-cycle genes)
What do conditional mutants refer to?
- permissive environmental conditions are met OR restrictive conditions allows the cell to replicate, or prevents replication
What are other eukaryotic model systems?
- animal embryos, cultured mammalian cells
Why is it tricky to isolate mutants affecting cell cycle?
- mutant propagation@ permissive temperature
- switch off function of mutant genes (restrictive temperature)
What are the advantages of working with early embryos? example?
- there is no G1 G2 phases as the cells divide nearly every 30 minutes
- Frog embryos produce large eggs with lots of proteins where the 1st division takes 90minutes but the next 11 divisions occur every 30 minutes but there is NO cell growth as the egg stays the same size
Why are mammalian model systems cultured in tubes? Problems and Solutions?
- difficult to study individual cells in an intact organism
Problem: replicative senescence
Solution: immortalized cell lines & tissue cultures
Can you study the cell cycle in a free system?
Yes; large eggs used
- allows for the manipulation of cell cycle by controlling their growth conditions; ex drugs block & unblock pathways OR remove check points OR replace normal host proteins with other proteins
How do you monitor model systems of mammalian cells during the cell cycle? What phase the cells are in
- BrdU is an artificial thymidine dye for DNA (antibodies or stains) - used to label 40% of cells in the S phase
- flow cytometer with DNA binding dyes to observe the stages of the cell cycle these cells are
What does immortalized cell lines refer to?
- induce a mutation so the cell evades normal cellular senescence to continue undergoing cell division
What occurs when a cell reaches one of the three main check points? - some questions to ask.
- progression is blocked if a problem is detected
1. Start Transition - the end of G1 phase before S phase (DNA replication) - Is the environment favourable
2. G2/M transition - Enter Mitosis - is the DNA replicated, is the environment favourable?
3. Meta-to- Ana phase Transition - Triggers anaphase and proceed to cytokinesis - are all the chromosomes attached to the spindle
What is the role of Checkpoints in a cell cycle?
- ensure that the preceding phase is complete before the next phase of the cell cycle begins
- check points may delay this advance to ensure repairs are done or the environmental conditions improve
We know what the Control System (Checkpoints does) - but was is key to its success?
- Switches are binary
- robust & reliable
- adaptable (to different signals - inter/intra cellular)
What are cyclins? where does the name come from?
- a regulator of CDKinases
- they will undergo a cycle of synthesis and degradation with each turn of the cell cycle
- each new round of cell cycle synthesis calls for new cyclins, so after each round of the cell cycle old cyclins are degraded
What are the two main roles for cyclins?
- to activate its specific Cdk partners
2. to direct this active Cdk partner to the specific target protein
At what four stages are cyclins or another regulatory protein required?
- START for G1/S-Cdk
- S-Cdk
- M-Cdk
- Between Metaphase-Anaphase via APC/C to initiate this transition
What is the role of Cdks? - and their concentration
- are protein kinases which are controlled by cyclin activation
- the concentration of Cdks DO NOT change
- they are present in a higher concentration than cyclins
How does cyclin activate a Cdk?
- Cdk contains a bound ATP with an unexposed T loop
- a cyclin will come in and expose the T-loop partially activating it
- now cyclin phosphorylates the T loop on the Cdk which causes a conformational change in the active site allowing tighter binding - Cdk is now Fully Active
How do different cyclin-Cdk complexes trigger different cell-cycle events? one catch though is…
- cyclin activates Cdk AND directs it to a specific target protein
- so each Cdk-cyclin complex activates a different set of substrate proteins BUT the same cyclin-Cdk complexes can have different properties at different times during the cell cycle
Since Cdk has an important function of directing cell-cycle progression - how do you regulate/inhibit this process?
- through regulating the activation of Cdk by preventing Cyclin from binding and exposing the T loop for activation
- ex Wee1 adds a Phosphate group on Cdk preventing cyclin from binding while Cdc25 will remove this phosphate and allow Cyclin to bind the Cdk
- ex. Cdk inhibitor proteins (CKIs) alter the strucutre of the entire Cdk-cyclin complex
What do Wee1 and Cdc25 regulate?
- since Wee1 kinase inhibits Cdk activity by adding P to a sequence of AA at the Cdk’s active site – thus blocking cyclin
- since Cdc25 works to dephosphorylate these sites – it activates Cdk activity
- therefore Wee1 and Cdc25 regulate the onset of MITOSIS
What affect does CKI have on the cyclin activation of Cdks?
- what are two examples?
- Cdk Inhibitory Protein alter the structure of Cdk-cyclin complex
- P21 and P27
What regulates the 3 stages of Cdk’s in a cell?
- G1/S-Cdk - CKIs
- S-Cdk - CKIs
- M-Cdk - Wee1 (inactive) vs Cdc25 (inactive)
What are three questions a Cdk asks before it progresses to is action? if all these are yes?
- has this phosphate been removed (the inhibitory one by Wee1)
- has this phosphate been added (the activating one on the T-loop by cyclin)
- is cyclin present
- if these answer as YES; Cdk activity turns on
What is the one stage in the cell cycle where a cyclin or Cdk functions
- stage between the transition from Metaphase-to-Anaphase (and cytokinesis)
- this stage is controlled by the APC/C complex
What does the APC/C complex refer to?
- Anaphase-promoting-complex/cyclosome
What function does APC/C have? of what two proteins degraded?
- this stage is regulated through proteolysis
- APC/C will catalyze the ubiquityltation and degradation of 1) Securin 2) S- & M-cyclins
Where and how does Securin function? and how does APC/C degrade this protein? and what Cdc is important in regulating what cell stage?
- Cdc20 activates APC/C during the metaphase to anaphase stage
- the now Cdc20 bound to APC/C will target Securin
- Securin functions by binding and inactivating the protein Separase
- once the active APC/C & Cdc20 ubiquitylation and degradation of securin can Separase Activate