Silvana Guidet - Böcker

Now in its second year, Progress in Cell Cycle Research was conceived to serve as an up to date introduction to various aspects of the cell division cycle. Although an annual review in any field of scientific investigation can never be as current as desired, especially in the cell cycle field, we hope that this volume will be helpful to students, to recent graduates considering a de1liation in subject and to investigators at the fringe of the cell cycle field wishing to bridge frontiers. An instructive approach to many subjects in biology is often to make comparisons between evolutionary distant organisms. If one is willing to accept that yeast represent a model primitive eukaryote, then it is possible to make some interesting comparisons of cell cycle control mechanisms between mammals and our little unicellular cousins. By and large unicellular organisms have no need for intracellular communication. With the exception of the mating phenomenon in S. cerevisiae and perhaps some nutritional sensing mechanisms, cellular division of yeast proceeds with complete disregard for neighbourly communication. Multicellular organisms on the other hand, depend entirely on intracellular communication to maintain structural integrity. Consequently, elaborate networks have evolved to either prevent or promote appropriate cell division in multicellular organisms. Yet, as described in chapter two the rudimentary mechanisms for fine tuning the cell division cycle in higher eukaryotes are already apparent in yeast.

The "Progress in Cell Cycle Research" series has been conceived to serve as a collection of reviews on various aspects of a fast growing biology field, the cell division cycle. These reviews do not pretend to cover all aspects of cell cycle regulation and mechanisms but rather focus on a few topics of particular interest in the recent literature. This third volume starts with a broad overview of the diversity of ways by which viruses subdue their host cell cycle (chapter 1). Of particular interest in this area is the case of HN which has recently been extensively investigated (chapter 2). Although most of our understanding of cell cycle regulation derives from work performed in yeast and animal cells, plant models, reviewed in chapter 3 for one of the best studied example, Arabidopsis, are starting to contribute significantly to the cell cycle general picture. In mammals, the regulation of cell division of two types of tissues, the intestine (chapter 4) and the developing muscle (chapter 5) are investigated in an interesting physiological context. Cell division is accompanied by a number of morphological changes. One of them, organelle transport, is starting to be better understood (chapter 6). The next few chapter summarise our knowledge of some essential regulators of the cell cycle. A still intriguing enzyme, casein kinase 2, is reviewed in detail in chapter 7. Some of the most studied cell cycle regulators are certainly the CKI's, cyclin-dependent kinases inhibitors (chapter 8).

The "Progress in Cell Cycle Research" series has been conceived to serve as a collection of reviews on various aspects of a fast growing biology field, the cell division cycle. These reviews do not pretend to cover all aspects of cell cycle regulation and mechanisms but rather focus on a few topics of particular interest in the recent literature. This third volume starts with a broad overview of the diversity of ways by which viruses subdue their host cell cycle (chapter 1). Of particular interest in this area is the case of HN which has recently been extensively investigated (chapter 2). Although most of our understanding of cell cycle regulation derives from work performed in yeast and animal cells, plant models, reviewed in chapter 3 for one of the best studied example, Arabidopsis, are starting to contribute significantly to the cell cycle general picture. In mammals, the regulation of cell division of two types of tissues, the intestine (chapter 4) and the developing muscle (chapter 5) are investigated in an interesting physiological context. Cell division is accompanied by a number of morphological changes. One of them, organelle transport, is starting to be better understood (chapter 6). The next few chapter summarise our knowledge of some essential regulators of the cell cycle. A still intriguing enzyme, casein kinase 2, is reviewed in detail in chapter 7. Some of the most studied cell cycle regulators are certainly the CKI's, cyclin-dependent kinases inhibitors (chapter 8).