Translational Control of Embryonic Cell Division by CPEB and Maskin (original) (raw)

1. I. GROISMAN,
2. Y.-S. HUANG,
3. R. MENDEZ,
4. Q. CAO, and
5. J.D. RICHTER
6. Program in Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts 01605

Excerpt

Translational control of specific messenger RNAs mediates such basic processes as cell division, cell differentiation, and cell polarity. Although studies over the pastdozen years have illustrated multiple ways in whichtranslation is regulated, there are surprisingly few examples where the mechanism of specific mRNA translationis known in detail (Wickens et al. 2000; Macdonald 2001;Mendez and Richter 2001). One of these mechanisms occurs in early development, and although there are likelyto be some major differences among various species, theoverall framework appears to be similar in most metazoans. Translational control by cytoplasmic polyadenylation has been observed in the oocytes and/or embryos ofmammals, amphibians, insects, and mollusks (McGrewet al. 1989; Vassalli et al. 1989; Salles et al. 1994; Minshall et al. 1999). Polyadenylation-induced translationhas also been detected in the mammalian brain, where itmay contribute to synaptic plasticity, a phenomenon ofneurons that may underlie long-term memory storage(Wu et al. 1998). Finally, recent evidence indicates thatcytoplasmic polyadenylation also occurs on spindles andcentrosomes, where it controls the local translation of aspecific mRNA that modulates cell division (Groisman etal. 2000). Because most of the essential features of cytoplasmic polyadenylation have been defined primarily using the oocytes of Xenopus laevis, most of our commentsare confined to a description of this process in thisspecies...