Right division

there is a series of checkpoints in a cell's life cycle, when it assesses whether everything is proceeding according to nature's plan, shows a new research. The discovery was made in yeast cell division by Jonathan Millar, a geneticist at the National Institute of Medical Research in London, the uk. The discovery could lead to a better understanding of how cells specialise to form different tissues and why some become cancerous.

For successful cell division, each daughter cell must get the adequate number of the right chromosomes. To achieve this, a protein scaffold called the spindle, forms inside a dividing cell, to which the chromosomes get attached to. Just before the division, the spindle pulls the chromosomes apart, to the opposite ends of the cell. The newfound checkpoint keeps track of the steps in this chromosomal dance -- if the spindle is in the wrong position it can send the chromosomes into disarray. The cell identifies this as a problem and stops the chromosomes from separating. The spindle's position is controlled by its interactions with another network of cellular filaments, made of the protein actin. Millar found that drugs that stop individual actin molecules joining forces can delay yeast cell division. The spindle, it seems, converses with the actin skeleton. If one falls silent, cell division pauses.

"We knew that the actin skeleton has a role in cell division, but we could not link it to the checkpoints," says Peter Deak, a researcher at the University of Cambridge, uk , who works on the control of cell division in the fruit fly, Drosophila. "This is a very fine experiment." The similarity between yeast ( Schizosaccharomyces pombe ) cells and animal cells makes it likely that the mechanism also works similarly in humans. Millar's team has identified some of the genes and proteins that may be involved using mutant strains of yeast oblivious to actin-disrupting drugs. But, how the cells actually recognise that their spindle is misaligned, and how actin and the spindle communicate is still a mystery.

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