MYB and MYC in the Cell Cycle (original) (raw)

  1. J.M. Bishop*,,,
  2. M. Eilers,§,
  3. A.L. Katzen*,,,
  4. T. Kornberg,
  5. G. Ramsay, and
  6. S. Schirm*
  7. *Department of Microbiology and Immunology, †Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, ‡G.W. Hooper Research Foundation, University of California, San Francisco, California 94143

Excerpt

The engine that drives mammalian cell division is governed in at least three ways. First, there are signaling pathways that serve as accelerators to activate the engine when it is idling and keep it running as long as cell division is required. The proteins encoded by proto-oncogenes represent components of these pathways, ranging from growth factors and their receptors to transcription factors that are activated in response to mitogenic stimuli (Bishop 1991a). Second, multiple governors retard or arrest the engine when the cell should cease division. The products of tumor suppressor genes are likely candidates for governors, although their mechanisms of action are presently obscure (Marshall 1991). Third, the engine runs according to a strict schedule that is maintained by a biochemical clock or oscillator, constructed around the cdc2 kinase and the cyclins (Nurse 1990).

The proto-oncogenes MYB and MYC exemplify potential accelerators for the cell cycle (Lüscher and Eisenman...