Timing the machine

摘要

During cell division everything must happen at the right time, or errors occur. A common cellular control device, protein phosphorylation, is now shown to time the assembly of a key part of the division machinery. Cells divide and thereby multiply. This fundamental process is central to the development and survival of all organisms, and mistakes in it are responsible for a plethora of human diseases, from Down's syndrome to cancer. Accordingly, cell division -- also known as mitosis --has received much attention from biologists. This attention has led to the discovery and analysis of a cycle of events that influences key regulatory proteins, but the mechanisms by which these proteins in turn influence the machinery of mitosis are less well understood. Writing on page 908 of this issue, Mishima et al. help to mitigate this disparity, describing direct links between cell-cycle regulators and the cell-division machinery.