Control of cell division by a retinoblastoma protein homolog in Chlamydomonas.

ABSTRACT: A key pathway that controls both cell division and differentiation in animal cells is mediated by the retinoblastoma (RB) family of tumor suppressors, which gate the passage of cells from G(1) to S and through S phase. The role(s) of the RB pathway in plants are not yet clearly defined, nor has there been any evidence for its presence in unicellular organisms. Here we have identified an RB homolog encoded by the mat3 gene in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a unicellular green alga in the land plant lineage. Chlamydomonas cells normally grow to many times their original size during a prolonged G(1) and then undergo multiple alternating rounds of S phase and mitosis to produce daughter cells of uniform size. mat3 mutants produce small daughter cells and show defects in two size-dependent cell cyc

SUBMITTER: Umen JG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC312728 | biostudies-literature | 2001 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature