Cdk-counteracting phosphatases unlock mitotic exit

• Published in: Current opinion in cell biology Vol. 20; no. 6; pp. 661 - 668
• Main Authors: Queralt, Ethel, Uhlmann, Frank
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01-12-2008; Elsevier
• Subjects: Animals; Cyclin-Dependent Kinases - genetics; Cyclin-Dependent Kinases - metabolism; Humans; Internal Medicine; Metazoa; Mitosis - physiology; Models, Biological; Phosphoprotein Phosphatases - genetics; Phosphoprotein Phosphatases - metabolism; Saccharomyces cerevisiae; Saccharomycetales - enzymology; Saccharomycetales - metabolism; Schizosaccharomyces pombe Proteins - genetics; Schizosaccharomyces pombe Proteins - metabolism
• ISSN: 0955-0674; 1879-0410
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ceb.2008.09.003

Entry into mitosis of the eukaryotic cell cycle is driven by rising cyclin-dependent kinase (Cdk) activity. During exit from mitosis, Cdk activity must again decline. Cdk downregulation by itself, however, is not able to guide mitotic exit, if not a phosphatase reverses mitotic Cdk phosphorylation events. In budding yeast, this role is played by the Cdc14 phosphatase. We are gaining an increasingly detailed picture of its regulation during anaphase, and of the way it orchestrates ordered progression through mitosis. Much less is known about protein dephosphorylation during mitotic exit in organisms other than budding yeast, but evidence is now mounting for crucial contributions of regulated phosphatases also in metazoan cells.