The Use of Plasmid Microinjection to Study Specific Cell Cycle Phase Transitions

Progression through the eukaryotic cell cycle is a highly regulated process in which cellular proliferation is dependent on the integration of multiple signals (reviewed in, Hamel and Hanley-Hyde, 1997; Reed, 1997; Del Sal et al., 1996; Sherr, 1996; Palmero and Peters, 1996). Diverse extracellular signals such as growth factors, adhesion, and nutrient availability, as well as intracellular signals such as cell size and genomic integrity, must be monitored for proper proliferation. Mis-regulation of cellular proliferation, as occurs in cancer cells, can often be traced to mutations which influence cell cycle transitions, particularly those involved in the decision to engage in genome replication (Palmero and Peters, 1996; Hamel and Hanley-Hyde, 1997; Sherr, 1996; Hunter and Pines, 1995).