Chapter Category: Cell Cycle

From the book The CDK-Activating Kinase (CAK)

CDK-Activating Kinases in Higher Plants

Masaaki Umeda

Recent development in plant molecular genetics has facilitated our understanding of how plants accomplish their body plans in response to various environmental signals. Plants have a unique feature of making almost all organs after embryogenesis, and morphogenesis usually takes place at a specific tissue, called meristems. Several genes that control meristem activities have been characterized by using Arabidopsis genetics, but the mechanisms by which such factors cross-talk with cell cycle regulators to balance cell division against cell differentiation in the meristems remain to be elucidated. To determine these mechanisms, studies have first characterized various genes involved in cell cycle regulation in many plant species, such as Alfalfa, Antirrhinum, Arabidopsis, rice and tobacco. Recent reports showed that reverse-genetic approaches with transgenic plants are useful for dissection of the signaling cascade involved in the control of cell division machinery. Here I review CDKs and CDK-activating kinases (CAKs) in plants and focus on the unique features of rice and Arabidopsis CAKs. Since CAK is an upstream kinase which activates almost all CDKs, up- or down-regulation of the kinase activity should critically influence total CDK activity in each cell of the meristems. Therefore, I shall also discuss how CAK may perceive internal and/or external signals and function in the maintenance of meristem activities.

Taken from the book

The CDK-Activating Kinase (CAK)

Edited by: Philipp Kaldis

More chapters from the book:

The eukaryotic cell cycle is driven by an evolutionarily conserved engine consisting of a series of cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK)-cyclin modules. The orderly events of the cell cycle depend on the complex interplay of many factors, but the long-held idea that activation and inhibition of...


The Evolution of CDK-Activating Kinases
Ji Liu, Edward T. Kipreos

Cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) are essential regulators of the cell cycle and transcription . In the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the fission yeast Saccharomyces pombe , a single CDK (Cdc28p or its ortholog Cdc2, respectively) catalyzes all major cell cycle transitions. 1,2...


Drosophila CDK7: A Paradigm for CAK in Metazoans
Stéphane Larochelle and Robert P. Fisher

Activation of cyclin dependent kinases (CDKs) by phosphorylation of the conserved Tloop is a regulatory step of cell cycle progression that was discovered just a decade ago. A wealth of data regarding this activation and of potential CDK activating kinases (CAKs) has accumulated. Despite this...


Recent development in plant molecular genetics has facilitated our understanding of how plants accomplish their body plans in response to various environmental signals. Plants have a unique feature of making almost all organs after embryogenesis, and morphogenesis usually takes place at a...


Activating Phosphorylation of Cyclin-Dependent Kinases in Budding Yeast
Philipp Kaldis, Vasiliki Tsakraklides, Karen E. Ross, Edward Winter

The eukaryotic cell division cycle is controlled via the sequential activation and inactivation of cyclin-dependent protein kinases (cdks). In the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae , Cdc28p is the only CDK involved in regulating the cell cycle, while in higher eukaryotes, multiple CDKs...


CDK-Activation in Fission Yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe: Specificity Mediated
Thomas Westerling, Damien Hermand and Tomi P. Mäkelä

Activation of cyclin dependent kinases (CDKs) by phosphorylation of the conserved Tloop is a regulatory step of cell cycle progression that was discovered just a decade ago. A wealth of data regarding this activation and of potential CDK activating kinases (CAKs) has accumulated. Despite this...


Activation of CDKs by CAK: CAK in TFIIH
Anne Keriel and Jean-Marc Egly

TFIIH was originally identified as a basal transcription factor involved in protein-coding genes transcription. The systematic cloning of its nine subunits revealed however that TFIIH also participates in two other fundamental cell processes: cell cycle regulation and repair of damaged DNA....


Structural Aspects of CDK Activation
Nick R. Brown and Jane A. Endicott

Sequential activation of members of the cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) family orders the events required for DNA replication and cell division. Both the CDK and cyclin families have multiple members that selectively bind to preferred partners to generate complexes that drive cell cycle...


Advertisements