Before a cell commits fully to the process of dividing itself into two new cells, it may ensure the appropriateness of its commitment by staying for many hours-;sometimes more than a day-;in a reversible intermediate state, according to a discovery by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine. Their revelation of this fundamental feature of biology includes details of its mechanisms and dynamics, which may inform the development of future therapies targeting cancers and other diseases. In their study, published June 26 in Nature, the researchers developed new tools allowing them to track over time the activation state of E2F, a transcription factor protein long known as the master switch for initiating division in mammalian cells.
They found unexpectedly that E2F, before being fully activated, can remain in a potentially lengthy state of partial and reversible activation that may end in full commitment to cell division or a reversion to the usual, non-dividing, "quiescent" state. Although the role of this pre-commitment state of cell division is not yet entirely clear, it appears to be a safety mechanism to avoid inappropriate cell division, and may also activate DNA-repair functions. In any case, it appears to be a basic-;and until now undiscovered-;aspect of cell biology, with likely implications for understanding cancer, wound healing, and other cell division-related processes.
We suspect, for example, that some types of cancer cell linger in this intermediate, pre-division st.
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