Peter Group

Regulation of cell growth and division by selective degradation mechanisms

Every living organism requires a tight coordination of cell growth and cell division, and defects in these regulatory systems are intimately linked to metabolic disorders and cellular transformation. Cell growth is manifested by an increase in cell mass, and thus involves the homeostasis and regulation of metabolic pathways, ribosome biogenesis and protein translation, and catabolic pathways including autophagy and ubiquitin-dependent degradation. Cell division requires the precise duplication of chromosomes and their partitioning between two daughter cells. The morphological transitions that lead to chromosome segregation during mitosis need to be coordinated in space and time with subsequent cytoplasm separation during cytokinesis. However, the molecular mechanisms that govern cell growth and division, and the different intra- and extracellular signals that regulate these pathways, are still poorly understood. More...