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Running Mad-ly into mitosis

Inhibition of Mad2 (purple dots), but not Bub3 (red line), hastens anaphase in the absence of spindle attachment problems. Sorger/Elsevier

Two spindle checkpoint proteins work away from the kinetochore to regulate mitotic timing, based on work from Patrick Meraldi, Viji Draviam, and Peter Sorger (MIT, Cambridge, MA). This control may kick in even before a kinetochore is assembled.

The mitotic checkpoint—controlled by Mad1, Mad2, Bub1, BubR1, and Bub3— delays anaphase by inhibiting APC until all kinetochores are properly attached to the spindle. Because inhibition of Mad2 leads to an accelerated mitosis and a precocious anaphase, it has been assumed that the checkpoint itself also regulates mitotic timing.

But Mad2 does not represent all of its kinetochore partners. "The assumption was that all were required for the checkpoint, so all would be needed here too," says Meraldi. But the authors found that only Mad2 and BubR1 delay anaphase even in cells with properly aligned chromosomes. The others monitor only gross problems with kinetochore attachments.

Mad2 and BubR1 could be prevented from binding to kinetochores and yet still regulate mitotic timing. In cells where mitosis requires nuclear breakdown, checkpoint proteins need to find their way to kinetochores after breakdown, leaving a window of time when the spindle checkpoint is not active. "APC could be held in check with this cytoplasmic function [of Mad2/BubR1]," says Meraldi. Now, the group needs to determine how this function is inactivated.

Reference:

Meraldi, P., et al. 2004. Dev. Cell. 7:45–60.[CrossRef][Medline]

Nicole LeBrasseur

lebrasn{at}rockefeller.edu

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This Article Full Text (PDF, 2428K) PPT slides of all figures Alert me when this article is cited Services Email this article Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new content in the JCB Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by LeBrasseur, N. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by LeBrasseur, N. Social Bookmarking                            What's this?