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Tumour suppressors

The trials of separation

Nature Reviews Cancer volume 4, page 832 (2004)Cite this article

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The authors monitored cell division by serial time-lapse imaging of murine embryo fibroblasts (MEFs) that possessed a mutation that truncates and inactivates the gene — Brca2Tr/Tr. These cells took significantly longer to progress from anaphase onset to cell separation than the wild-type controls. There was also a higher frequency of binucleate cells, which is indicative of incomplete cytokinesis. These abnormalities were also observed in vivo, when Brca2Tr/Tr cells were isolated from mouse embryos.

But is this phenotype unique to the truncation genotype? The authors depleted BRCA2 in HeLa cells using RNA interference (RNAi) and confirmed that BRCA2 deficiency resulted in an extension in the time from anaphase onset to the completion of cell division.

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References

ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Daniels, M. J., Wang, Y., Lee, M. & Venkitaraman, A. R. Abnormal cytokinesis in cells deficient in the breast cancer susceptibility protein BRCA2. Science 16 Sep 2004 (doi: 10.1126/science.1102574)

FURTHER READING

  1. Venkitaraman, A. R. V. Tracing the network connecting BRCA and Fanconi anaemia proteins. Nature Rev. Cancer 4, 267–276 (2004)

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  1. NPG Executive Editor, Oncogene,

    Emma Greenwood

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  1. Emma Greenwood
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Greenwood, E. The trials of separation. Nat Rev Cancer 4, 832 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc1480

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