A key feature and a critical first step in understanding cell division and proliferation lies in characterizing the temporal regulation of protein abundance. A collaborative publication "Proteomic analysis of cell cycle progression in asynchronous cultures, including mitotic subphases, using PRIMMUS" was recently published in eLife.

The Cell atlas team from Sweden joined forces with Dr Tony Ly and Professor Angus Lamond from the University of Dundee, to perform a proteome-wide analysis of changes in protein abundance and phosphorylation across the cell cycle...Read more

TPX2 was identified in 1997 as a 100 kDa nuclear protein. In cells TPX2, a is a microtubule nucleation factor that translocates from the nucleus - where it resides during interphase - to the mitotic spindle during mitosis.

The mitotic spindle forms when chromosomes are ready to segregate during cell division and not surprisingly this protein is also found in this specific compartment of the cell! TPX2 is required for the correct formation of the kinetochores that is crucial for the attachment of microtubules, enabling the sister chromatids to be pulled apart. Due to its function TPX2 expression is cell-cycle dependent...Read more

Over the last couple of months, you have hade the pleasure to see Image of the week here on the blog, where an image we find particularly interesting has been shown and discussed. Now that our Cell Atlas is out, you can browse images of your favorite protein directly in our database! In addition to all the images we have added, there are also new "Human Cell" chapters, which provide a knowledge-based analysis of the human cellular proteomes and an entry into the Human Protein Atlas from different perspectives...Read more

It's time for another Image of the week! This week's image is brought to us by Diana Mahdessian, who works on the Subcellular protein atlas, and highlights cell division and various stages of mitosis. In previous blogs we have discussed the importance of certain proteins in the cell cycle including dividing centrosomes and FDXR in mitochondria.

The cell cycle is an ordered series of events that ultimately leads to the division of the "mother" cell into two "daughter" cells (cells are given feminine names because they are capable of reproducing).

The cell cycle consists of three distinct phases; interphase, mitosis and cytokinesis...Read more

This week HPA image of the week, I've decided to highlight two of my favorite things, the cell cycle and actin filaments!

The protein labeled in Fig 1. is an image of Cell division cycle 42 effector protein (Rho GTPase binding) 4 (CDC42EP4). In addition to being quite a mouthful, this protein resides in the cytoplasm and is associated with the actin filaments. In this image, CDC42EP4 is seen in U-2 OS human osteosarcoma cells.

As the name suggests, the CDC42EP4 is a protein associated with CDC42, which helps regulate the transition from G1 to S (in which DNA is replicated), and is essential for proper cell cycle progression (Yasuda S et al. 2006)...Read more