DNA-replication checkpoint control at the Drosophila midblastula transition

Ody C. M. Sibon, Victoria A. Stevenson and William E. Theurkauf ()
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Ody C. M. Sibon: State University of New York at Stony Brook
Victoria A. Stevenson: State University of New York at Stony Brook
William E. Theurkauf: State University of New York at Stony Brook

Nature, 1997, vol. 388, issue 6637, 93-97

Abstract: Abstract Embryogenesis is typically initiated by a series of rapid mitotic divisions that are under maternal genetic control1. The switch to zygotic control of embryogenesis at the midblastula transition is accompanied by significant increases in cell-cycle length and gene transcription, and changes in embryo morphology2,3. Here we show that mutations in the grapes (grp) checkpoint 1 kinase homologue4 in Drosophila block the morphological and biochemical changes that accompany the midblastula transition, lead to a continuation of the maternal cell-cycle programme, and disrupt DNA-replication checkpoint control of cell-cycle progression. The timing of the midblastula transition is controlled by the ratio of nuclei to cytoplasm (the nucleocytoplasmic ratio), suggesting that this developmental transition is triggered by titration of a maternal factor by the increasing mass of nuclear material that accumulates during the rapid embryonic mitoses5,6,7,8,9. Our observations support a model for cell-cycle control at the midblastula transition in which titration of a maternal component of the DNA-replication machinery slows DNA synthesis and induces a checkpoint-dependent delay in cell-cycle progression10. This delay may allow both completion of S phase and transcription of genes that initiate the switch to zygotic control of embryogenesis.

Date: 1997
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DOI: 10.1038/40439

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