Identification and characterization of the centromere in human pathogenic yeast candida tropicalis

Abstract

"Cell division is one of the most fundamental and conserved processes, by which a mother cell transmits genetic material to its progeny. The sequence of events that help a mother cell to give rise to identical daughter cells is known as the mitotic cell cycle. The mitotic cell cycle involves the two important phases that are temporally separated in eukaryotes. These two phases of the cell cycle are termed as S (synthetic) phase and M (mitotic) phase (Figure 1). The M phase is further sub-divided into four important stages - prophase, metaphase, anaphase and telophase. During prophase, the chromatin fibers (DNA molecules in association with RNA and protein components in a cell) condense into highly compact form to facilitate chromosome segregation. In metaphase, the condensed sister chromatids are bivalently attached to the segregating apparatus, the spindle. Anaphase is initiated by the separation of the duplicated chromatids to the opposite poles. Finally duplicated chromatids segregate from each other at telophase, chromatin again decondenses and cell division is completed by the physical separation of the cytoplasm into two daughter cells by reformation of the nuclear envelope. However, it is noteworthy that these stages are very short in yeasts and are not easily separable."