After providing an overview of the process of cell growth and division, this paper examines cell division in the organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Recent research on this organism is reviewed to examine some of the conclusions about the interactions between cell growth and division and the presence of various single and double mutant forms. Such a careful study of cell growth and reproduction in unicellular organisms such as S. cerevisiae has implications for human oncological research.
This paper examines the cell division cycle in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the common brewer's yeast that has long been used as an organism in which to study the cell division cycle (Cdc) because of the brevity of that cycle in this organism. S. cerevisiae has also been the focus of significant research because this organism divides through budding, which makes it easy to follow the progress of the cell cycle in living cells.
After reviewing the general process of mitosis and meiosis, this paper examines the role of Cdc24 and the possible implications of the process of cell growth and division in S. cerevisiae for human oncological studies. (Moreover, as Beltran et al. [1992] note, the functional assembly of mammalian subunits in yeast enzymes make it an excellent model system for studying certain analogous processes as they occur in mammalian cells and organelles [p. 778]. This has implications for oncological research but also for many other areas of mammalian biology as well.)
Different steps of a cell's cycle are controlled by a host of genes. This is true for both unicellular and multicellular organisms and studies on the mechanisms underlying the cell division cycle in unicellular organisms such as yeast have become easier after the discovery of numerous Cdc genes. These genes may act alone or they may interact with others to control specific steps of cell growth, including DNA synthesis, cytokinesis and cell morphological cha...