Positioning cytokinesis
- Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory and the Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117604, Singapore
Abstract
Cytokinesis is the terminal step of the cell cycle during which a mother cell divides into daughter cells. Often, the machinery of cytokinesis is positioned in such a way that daughter cells are born roughly equal in size. However, in many specialized cell types or under certain environmental conditions, the cell division machinery is placed at nonmedial positions to produce daughter cells of different sizes and in many cases of different fates. Here we review the different mechanisms that position the division machinery in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cell types. We also describe cytokinesis-positioning mechanisms that are not adequately explained by studies in model organisms and model cell types.
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↵1 Corresponding authors.
↵E-MAIL mohan{at}tll.org.sg; FAX 65-6-872-7012.
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↵2 E-MAIL snejana{at}tll.org.sg; FAX 65-6872-7007
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Article is online at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.1772009.
- Copyright © 2009 by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press