Chapter category: Cell Cycle
CDK-Activating Kinases in Higher Plants
The CDK-Activating Kinase (CAK)
Edited by: Philipp KaldisISBN: 0-306-47438-7
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Chapter authors:
Masaaki Umeda
Recent development in plant molecular genetics has facilitated our understanding of how plants accomplish their body plans in response to various environmental signals. Plants have a unique feature of making almost all organs after embryogenesis, and morphogenesis usually takes place at a specific tissue, called meristems. Several genes that control meristem activities have been characterized by using Arabidopsis genetics,1 but the mechanisms by which such factors cross-talk with cell cycle regulators to balance cell division against cell differentiation in the meristems remain to be elucidated. To determine these mechanisms, studies have first characterized various genes involved in cell cycle regulation in many plant species, such as Alfalfa, Antirrhinum, Arabidopsis, rice and tobacco.2-5 Recent reports showed that reverse-genetic approaches with transgenic plants are useful for dissection of the signaling cascade involved in the control of cell division machinery.6-8
Here I review CDKs and CDK-activating kinases (CAKs) in plants and focus on the unique features of rice and Arabidopsis CAKs. Since CAK is an upstream kinase which activates almost all CDKs, up- or down-regulation of the kinase activity should critically influence total CDK activity in each cell of the meristems. Therefore, I shall also discuss how CAK may perceive internal and/or external signals and function in the maintenance of meristem activities.
Additional chapters from this book:
Structural Aspects of CDK Activation
Nick R. Brown and Jane A. Endicott
Sequential activation of members of the cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) family orders the events required for DNA replication and cell division. Both the CDK and cyclin families ha...
Activation of CDKs by CAK: CAK in TFIIH
Anne Keriel and Jean-Marc Egly
TFIIH was originally identified as a basal transcription factor involved in protein-coding genes transcription.1,2 The systematic cloning of its nine subunits r...
CDK-Activation in Fission Yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe: Specificity Mediated
Thomas Westerling, Damien Hermand and Tomi P. Mäkelä
Activation of cyclin dependent kinases (CDKs) by phosphorylation of the conserved Tloop is a regulatory step of cell cycle progression that was discovered just a decade ago. A we...
Activating Phosphorylation of Cyclin-Dependent Kinases in Budding Yeast
Philipp Kaldis, Vasiliki Tsakraklides, Karen E. Ross, Edward Winter
The eukaryotic cell division cycle is controlled via the sequential activation and inactivation of cyclin-dependent protein kinases (cdks). In the budding yeast Sacchar...
CDK-Activating Kinases in Higher Plants
Masaaki Umeda
Recent development in plant molecular genetics has facilitated our understanding of how plants accomplish their body plans in response to various environmental signals. Plants h...
Drosophila CDK7: A Paradigm for CAK in Metazoans
Stéphane Larochelle and Robert P. Fisher
Activation of cyclin dependent kinases (CDKs) by phosphorylation of the conserved Tloop is a regulatory step of cell cycle progression that was discovered just a decade ago. A wealth o...
The Evolution of CDK-Activating Kinases
Ji Liu, Edward T. Kipreos
Cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) are essential regulators of the cell cycle and transcription. In the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the fission ...
CAK from Marine Invertebrates to Human
Randy Y.C. Poon
The eukaryotic cell cycle is driven by an evolutionarily conserved engine consisting of a series of cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK)-cyclin modules. The orderly events of the cell cyc...
