What is it about?
Making histone proteins is critical to maintaining genome structure. We have shown that cells build up histone proteins in two phases, at low levels as soon as they commit to the cell cycle and at high levels once they start replicating their DNA. It was previously thought that cells only produced histone proteins during DNA replication.
Featured Image
Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Here we show the timing of histone biosynthesis relative to cell-cycle progression in single cells. This is important because histone production is a critical part of completing the cell cycle, and improper histone production can lead to genomic instability or toxicity to the cell. Two major findings are that: a) histones are produced in two levels in G1 and S phase and b) histone production levels are immediately distinguishable in cells that have exited the cell cycle vs. cells that have committed to the cell cycle.
Perspectives
I hope that this article is enjoyable to people in both the cell cycle field and histone gene regulation field. This project is a good example of how cell-cycle tracking tools can be used to analyze the various processes that exist during cell-cycle progression and commitment.
Claire Armstrong
University of Colorado Boulder
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Replication-dependent histone biosynthesis is coupled to cell-cycle commitment, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, July 2021, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2100178118.
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