Research the literature on your own (or suggested assignment)
- Learn how progression through the Start checkpoint is controlled by the mating pheromone alpha factor in budding yeast.
- Learn about the mechanisms that ensure that the chromosomes are duplicated once and only once per cell cycle. What mechanisms prevent the cell from accidentally duplicating chromosomes more than once, which might result in daughter cells with incorrect chromosome numbers?
- Learn how inhibitory phosphorylation of Cdks governs Cdk activation at the G2/M transition. Learn how these mechanisms generate switch-like, irreversible activation of Cdk-cyclin complexes at the beginning of mitosis.
- Learn how a mechanism called the spindle assembly checkpoint restrains the onset of anaphase when sister chromatids are not properly attached to the spindle.
- Learn how the cell responds when its DNA is severely damaged, and how DNA damage affects progression through the cell cycle.
- Learn about the complex series of enzymes involved in protein ubiquitination.
- Research the latest studies of sister-chromatid cohesion, and assess current models for how the cohesin complex holds sister chromatids together.
- A major question in cell cycle biology is how cells coordinate cell division with cell growth (i.e. increase in cell mass) to ensure that cell size remains constant. In most dividing populations of cells, cells double their mass in each cell cycle. What are some potential mechanisms for linking cell size with progress through the cell cycle?
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