Comparative biology of cell division in the fission yeast clade.
Cytokinesis must be regulated in time and space in order to preserve genome integrity during cell proliferation and to allow daughter cells to adopt distinct fates and geometries during differentiation. The fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe has been a popular model organism for understanding spatiotemporal regulation of cytokinesis in a symmetrically dividing cell. Recent work on another member of the same genus, Schisozaccharomyces japonicus, suggests that S. pombe may have evolved an unusual division site placement mechanism based on a recently duplicated anillin paralog. Here we discuss an extraordinary evolutionary plasticity of cytokinesis within the fission yeast clade and argue that the comparative cell biology approach may provide functional insights beyond those afforded by scrutinizing individual model species.
Randall Division of Cell and Molecular Biophysics, King's College London, London SE1 1UL, UK.
Ying
Y
Gu
Randall Division of Cell and Molecular Biophysics, King's College London, London SE1 1UL, UK. Electronic address: snezhana.oliferenko@kcl.ac.uk.
Snezhana
S
Oliferenko
D000199:Actins / Q000378:metabolism; D005075:Biological Evolution; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D003285:Contractile Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D048749:Cytokinesis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D019204:GTP-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D015966:Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal; D008938:Mitosis; D011494:Protein Kinases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D012568:Schizosaccharomyces / Q000166:cytology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*
D000199:Actins; C082279:CDC15 protein; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; D003285:Contractile Proteins; D005656:Fungal Proteins; C095886:anillin; D011494:Protein Kinases; D019204:GTP-Binding Proteins