Endocycles – repeated rounds of DNA replication without intervening mitoses – are involved in several terminal differentiation events. In Drosophila, for example, endoreplication occurs during the terminal differentiation of mechanosensory bristles. Endocycles are thought not to involve mitotic cyclins but here (p. 547), Agnès Audibert, Michel Gho and colleagues overturn that view by showing that cyclin A (CycA), which was thought to function exclusively in mitosis in Drosophila, is involved in endoreplication in the bristle lineage. The researchers show that CycA accumulates during the last part of endoreplication. CycA loss- and gain-of-function both induce changes in the dynamics of endoreplication, they report, and reduce the number of endocycles. Finally, CycA is required for relocalisation of ORC2, a member of the pre-replication complex, to the heterochromatin. These and other data reveal that CycA oscillations regulate endocycle dynamics in the fly mechanosensory bristle lineage and suggest that endoreplication involves remodelling of the entire cell-cycle network rather than simply a restriction of the canonical cell cycle as previously suggested.
CycA takes control of endoreplication
CycA takes control of endoreplication. Development 1 February 2012; 139 (3): e301. doi:
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