New Cell Division Mechanism Implacations in Cancer

Biologist Phong Tran who is Associate Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine Associate has discovered a new mechanism in cell division which has implications for understanding aberrant chromosome's role in cancer according to the Penn Study.

Tran working with physicist Francois Nedelec of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, and Guilhem Velve-Casquillas, PhD, uncovered the molecular players and mechanism underlying a little-studied stage of cellular division called Anaphase B. Velve-Casquillas a postdoc in Tran's lab helped develop a device requiring nano-scale technology used in the study.

Anaphase B is just one part of the complex molecular choreography that is cell division. The process is akin to two children dividing up their Halloween candy: collect your candy, pile it in the middle, and divide it into two equal portions.

In the August 14 issue of Developmental Cell, the team reports that a molecular motor protein called Klp9p and the microtubule-associated protein Ase1p form a complex and bind to the midzone of the spindle - a sort of molecular scaffold that ensures a critical step: equal division of genetic material between two daughter cells of cell division. They also found that this interaction is regulated by a molecular switch, which is coordinated by two other proteins Cdc2p and Clp1p.

"We now have a mechanism to describe Anaphase B, which was not well described up to now," Tran says.

Montage of a fission yeast cell undergoing mitosis. The microtubule structures, including the spindle, are shown in red. The motor protein klp9p is shown in green. The motor binds to the spindle specifically at anaphase B onset, where it helps elongate the spindle.

Credit: Phong Tran, PhD, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine; Developmental Cell

According to Tran, the findings have potential implications for cancer biology, in that inappropriate chromosomal segregation can lead to aneuploidies, cells lacking the proper number of chromosomes, which is a hallmark of many cancers.

Reference:

1. Newly Discovered Mechanism in Cell Division has Implications for Understanding Aberrant Chromosome's Role in Cancer, According to Penn Study