Discovery of molecular and genetic mechanisms of cell cycle regulation: 2001 Nobel laureates leland Hartwell, Timothy Hunt and Paul Nurse

Abstract

Leland Hartwell, Paul Nurse and Timothy Hunt in 2001 were awarded the Nobel Prize for their discovery of molecular and genetic mechanisms of the cell cycle. The review analyzes the features of the objects chosen by scientists, a wide range of methods from conventional light microscopy to recombinant DNA technology and complementation test, used for research, and covers a history of the discoveries made. Thanks to the work of these scientists, a modern­ understanding of the cell cycle checkpoints, the complexes formed by cyclin and cyclin-dependent­ kinases at different phases of the cell cycle, as well as the mechanism of periodic cyclin degradation and the universality of the cyclin mechanism of cellular division in all living organisms was gained. Keywords: cdc mutants, cdc2/cdc28, cdk protein kinase, cdk/cyclin complex, cell cycle, cyclin, Saccharomyces cere­visiae, Schizosaccharomyces pombe