Sonic hedgehog (Shh) signal transduction via the G-protein-coupled receptor, Smoothened, is required for proliferation of cerebellar granule neuron precursors (CGNPs) during development. Activating mutations in the Hedgehog pathway are also implicated in basal cell carcinoma and medulloblastoma, a tumor of the cerebellum in humans. However, Shh signaling interactions with cell cycle regulatory ...

Viruses can modify conditions inside cells to make them more favorable for replication and progeny virus production. One way of doing this is through manipulation of the cell cycle, a process that describes the ordered growth and division of cells. Analysis of model cell lines, such as A549 cells and primary airway epithelial cells, infected with human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV) has sho...

Loss of function of cyclin E1 or E2, important regulators of the mitotic cell cycle, yields viable mice, but E2-deficient males display reduced fertility. To elucidate the role of E-type cyclins during spermatogenesis, we characterized their expression patterns and produced additional deletions of Ccne1 and Ccne2 alleles in the germline, revealing unexpected meiotic functions. While Ccne2 mRNA ...

The cdc2 kinase and B-type cyclins are known to be components of maturation- or M-phase-promoting factor (MPF). Phosphorylation of cyclin B has been reported previously and may regulate entry into and exit from mitosis and meiosis. To investigate the role of cyclin B phosphorylation, we replaced putative cdc2 kinase phosphorylation sites in Xenopus cyclins B1 and B2 by using oligonucleotide sit...

Cyclins and cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) play versatile roles in promoting the hallmarks of cancer. Therefore, cyclins CDKs have been widely studied targeted cancer treatment, with four CDK4/6 inhibitors being approved by FDA many other examined clinical trials. The specific purpose this review is to delineate role therapeutic potential Cyclin K cancers. Studies shown that regulates essentia...

Gammaherpesvirus cyclins have expanded biochemical features relative to mammalian cyclins, and promote infection and pathogenesis including acute lung infection, viral persistence, and reactivation from latency. To define the essential features of the viral cyclin, we generated a panel of knock-in viruses expressing various viral or mammalian cyclins from the murine gammaherpesvirus 68 cyclin l...

The mammalian heart lacks intrinsic ability to replace diseased myocardium with newly divided myocytes. There is scant information on mechanisms regulating cell cycle exit in cardiomyocytes. We cloned a splice variant of cyclin D2 (D2SV) from the mouse heart and found a novel role for this protein in cardiomyocyte cell cycle exit. We report that D2SV is highly expressed in embryonic myocardium ...

Cyclins are key regulatory proteins that, in concert with cyclin-dependent protein kinase subunits (cdks), function to govern critical transitions and/or restriction points during the course of cell cycle progression. Recently, a number of putative mammalian G1 cyclins have been characterized at the molecular level; however, the specific activities of the cyclin/cdk complexes and the precise bi...