Progress in Cell Cycle Research / Progress in Cell Cycle Research.Vol.4

The Progress in Cell Cycle Research series is dedicated to serve as a collection of reviews on various aspects of the cell division cycle, with special emphasis in less studied aspects.
This fourth volume of Progress in Cell Cycle Research starts with a review of RAS pathways and how they impinge on the cell cycle (chapter 1). In chapter 2, an overview is presented of the links between cell anchorage - cytoskeleton and cell cycle progression. A model of the G1 control in mammalian cells is provided in chapter 3. The role of histone acetylation and cell cycle control is described in chapter 4. Then follow a few reviews dedicated to specific cell cycle regulators: the 14-3-3 protein (chapter 5), the cdc7/Dbf4 protein kinase (chapter 6), the two products of the p16/CDKN2A locus and their link with Rb and p53 (chapter 7), the Pho85 cyclin-dependent kinases in yeast (chapter 9), the cdc25 phosphatase (chapter 10), RCC1 and ran (chapter 13). The intriguing phosphorylation-dependent prolyl-isomerization process and its function in cell cycle regulation are reviewed in chapter 8. Our current knowledge of the molecular mechanisms of cell cycle regulation has greatly benefited from the use of oocyte maturation, a unique but diverse cellular process investigated in a large variety of models reviewed in chapter 11. The cross-talks between MAP kinase and cdc2/cyclin B in oocytes have been particularly well understood in Xenopus (chapter 12). More and more data show the interference of viral proteins with the mammalian cell cycle (see review in chapter 1 of Progress in Cell Cycle Research !). One such example, the HTLV-1 tax protein, is described in chapter 14. Our knowledge of the cell cycle is spreading to protozoan parasites, as nicely reviewed in chapter 15, and this may have great therapeutic consequences. Quite fascinatingly, the cell cycle is regulated by the circadian rhythm, from unicellular organisms (chapter 16) to man (chapter 17). The use of cell-cycle-specific