Cell Cycle Group
The Group Studies the mechanisms that drive the eukaryotic cell cycle
Recent Submissions
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Making connections at DNA replication forks: Mrc1 takes the lead.In a recent issue of Molecular Cell, Lou et al. (2008) demonstrate that the Mrc1 protein associates with the DNA polymerase that acts on the leading strand at replication forks, suggesting a potential mechanism that could help to preserve genome stability.
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Inn1 couples contraction of the actomyosin ring to membrane ingression during cytokinesis in budding yeast.By rapidly depleting each of the essential budding yeast proteins of unknown function, we identified a novel factor that we call Inn1, which associates with the contractile actomyosin ring at the end of mitosis and is needed for cytokinesis. We show that Inn1 has a C2 domain at the amino terminus of the protein that is required for ingression of the plasma membrane, whereas the remainder of the protein recruits Inn1 to the actomyosin ring. The lethal effects of deleting the INN1 gene can be suppressed by artificial fusion of the C2 domain to other components of the actomyosin ring, restoring membrane ingression on contraction of the actomyosin ring. Our data indicate that recruitment of the C2 domain of Inn1 to the contractile actomyosin ring is crucial for ingression of the plasma membrane during cytokinesis in budding yeast.