March 9, 2009 meeting

We'll meet on March 9 at 12:00 noon in Room W2303 (back to our usual room on the second floor of the SPH, around the corner from the Daily Grind).
Min-Young Kim from the Drummond-Barbosa lab will be presenting -

A spindle assembly checkpoint protein functions in prophase I arrest and prometaphase progression
Science (2009) 329:991
Homer, Gui, and Carroll

Min-Young's comment about this paper:
"The anaphase promoting complex (APC) is a multisubunit E3 uibquitin ligase. The APC mediates degradation of cell cycle regulators. Direct binding of the APC activators, Cdc20 or Cdh1, is critical for target specificity and the timing of the APC activation. During mitosis, it is known that a component of Spindle Assembly Checkpoint complex (SAC), BubR1 inhibits the APC/Cdc20 until all chromosomes are properly aligned on metaphase plate. However, it is still unclear how the APC activity is controlled during meiosis. This paper has shown that BubR1 affects the stability of Cdh1 instead of Cdc20 during meiosis in mouse oocytes. This is a noteworthy finding in cell cycle study."

(and a special thank-you to Min-Young for being willing to present in her first year here at JHU!)