Department of Medical Genetics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Methods Mol Biol. 2022;2579:3-23. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-2736-5_1.
The cell cycle is the series of events that take place in a cell that drives it to divide and produce two new daughter cells. Through more than 100 years of efforts by scientists, we now have a much clearer picture of cell cycle progression and its regulation. The typical cell cycle in eukaryotes is composed of the G1, S, G2, and M phases. The M phase is further divided into prophase, prometaphase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase, and cytokinesis. Cell cycle progression is mediated by cyclin-dependent kinases (Cdks) and their regulatory cyclin subunits. However, the driving force of cell cycle progression is growth factor-initiated signaling pathways that controls the activity of various Cdk-cyclin complexes. Most cellular events, including DNA duplication, gene transcription, protein translation, and post-translational modification of proteins, occur in a cell-cycle-dependent manner. To understand these cellular events and their underlying molecular mechanisms, it is desirable to have a population of cells that are traversing the cell cycle synchronously. This can be achieved through a process called cell synchronization. Many methods have been developed to synchronize cells to the various phases of the cell cycle. These methods could be classified into two groups: synchronization methods using chemical inhibitors and synchronization methods without using chemical inhibitors. All these methods have their own merits and shortcomings.
细胞周期是指细胞中发生的一系列事件，这些事件促使细胞分裂并产生两个新的子细胞。经过科学家们 100 多年的努力，我们现在对细胞周期的进展及其调控有了更清晰的认识。真核生物的典型细胞周期由 G1、S、G2 和 M 期组成。M 期进一步分为前期、前中期、中期、后期、末期和胞质分裂期。细胞周期的进展是由细胞周期蛋白依赖性激酶（Cdks）及其调节的细胞周期蛋白亚基介导的。然而，细胞周期进展的驱动力是生长因子引发的信号通路，它控制着各种 Cdk-细胞周期蛋白复合物的活性。大多数细胞事件，包括 DNA 复制、基因转录、蛋白质翻译和蛋白质的翻译后修饰，都是以细胞周期依赖性的方式发生的。为了理解这些细胞事件及其潜在的分子机制，最好有一群同步穿过细胞周期的细胞。这可以通过一种称为细胞同步化的过程来实现。已经开发出许多方法来将细胞同步到细胞周期的各个阶段。这些方法可以分为两类：使用化学抑制剂的同步方法和不使用化学抑制剂的同步方法。所有这些方法都有其优点和缺点。
