Mitosis is the basic form of eukaryotic cell division. The division ways of eukaryotic cells also include amitosis and meiosis. Mitosis mainly replicates the genetic material and distributes the genetic material evenly between the two daughter cells. Cell mitosis can maintain the relative stability of the genetic material between the offspring and the parent to achieve the normal development of individual tissues and organs. Cell cycle is derived from the periodicity of cell mitosis. It refers to the series of events that take place in a cell, resulting in the duplication of its genome and division of cytoplasm and organelles to produce two daughter cells.
The cell cycle was discovered by Prevost and Dumas while studying the cleavage of zygote of Frog in 1824. It is the process by which cells grow from the end of the last cell division to the end of the next division. Human cells exhibit typical eukaryotic cell cycle which is divided into two main phases, interphase and M phase ( As shown in the figure 1).
Interphase, also known as the resting phase of the cell cycle, is the time during the ends of one mitotic cell division to the start of the next division by undergoing both cell growth and DNA replication. It is the longest part of the cell division and occupies around 95% time of the overall cycle. Based on different events happened in this time, the interphase is further divided into three phases, including G1 phase, S phase and G2 phase.
M phase is a multiple-step process where duplicated chromosomes are aligned, separated, and move into two identical daughter cells. M phase consists of two processes, including mitosis and cytokinesis. The mitotic phase is divided into four overlapping stages: prophase, metaphase, anaphase and telophase. Cytokinesis in animal cells starts as a ring of actin filaments forms at the metaphase plate. In this phase, the cytoplasm of the cell divides.
In order to ensure DNA replication and the correct distribution of chromosomes in the cell cycle, cells have developed a set of sophisticated inspection mechanisms to monitor some key processes in the cell cycle. These inspection mechanisms are often referred to as cell cycle checkpoints. Cell cycle has two important checkpoints, including the G1/S phase checkpoint and the G2/M phase checkpoint. The former regulates the process of cells entering the DNA synthesis phase from a quiescent state; the latter determines whether the cell is divided into two to form two daughter cells. This monitors the operation of cell cycle regulation, ensuring that genes and genetic material are passed on accurately to daughter cells. CUSABIO lists partial popular targets related cell cycle, click to see all the related molecules/targets and research reagents of them.
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