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IN BRIEF

Arabidopsis WEE1 Kinase Controls Cell Cycle Arrest in Response to DNA Damage

neckardt{at}aspb.org

When cells experience DNA damage, the ataxia telangiectasia–mutated (ATM) and Rad3-related (ATR) signaling kinases simultaneously activate a transient cell cycle arrest and induce DNA repair pathways, allowing cells to repair DNA before proceeding into mitosis. ATM responds specifically to double-stranded breaks, whereas ATR primarily senses replication stress caused by a persistent block of replication fork progression. De Schutter et al. (pages 211–225) demonstrate that Arabidopsis WEE1, which encodes a kinase that is a negative regulator of the cell cycle, is transcriptionally activated following DNA damage in an ATM-dependent manner and upon cessation of DNA replication in an ATR-dependent manner. In accordance with a role for WEE1 in DNA stress signaling, WEE1-deficient plants showed no obvious abnormalities in cell division or endoreduplication when grown under nonstress conditions but were hypersensitive to agents that impair DNA replication. WEE1 expression was found to inhibit plant growth by arresting dividing cells in the G2 phase of the cell cycle. Therefore, WEE1 is a key target of ATR-ATM signaling cascades that inhibit the cell cycle upon activation of DNA integrity checkpoints, allowing mitosis to be coordinated with the completion of DNA repair in cells that suffer DNA damage. These results show that ATR- and ATM-dependent transcriptional upregulation of WEE1 is an important cell cycle checkpoint mechanism in plants.

View larger version (113K): [in this window] [in a new window] [as a PowerPoint slide]   A WEE1promoter:GUS marker gene is inactive under nonstress conditions (left panel) and induced (right panel) in roots treated with an inhibitor of DNA replication.

www.plantcell.org/cgi/doi/10.1105/tpc.107.190111

Related articles in Plant Cell:

Arabidopsis WEE1 Kinase Controls Cell Cycle Arrest in Response to Activation of the DNA Integrity Checkpoint

Kristof De Schutter, Jérôme Joubès, Toon Cools, Aurine Verkest, Florence Corellou, Elena Babiychuk, Els Van Der Schueren, Tom Beeckman, Sergeï Kushnir, Dirk Inzé, and Lieven De Veylder
Plant Cell 2007 19: 211-225. [Abstract] [Full Text]  

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