Tony Ly eLife paper: Proteomic analysis of the response to cell cycle arrests in human myeloid leukemia cells April 10, 2015 Dr Tony Ly is first author on a paper in eLife on the response to cell cycle arrests in human myeloid leukemia cells. Building on previous work, this new study demonstrates that while elutriated cells and arrested cells have similar patterns of DNA content and cyclin expression, a large fraction of the proteome changes detected in arrested cells are found to reflect arrest-specific responses rather than physiological cell cycle regulation. Previously, the group analysed protein abundance changes across a ‘minimally perturbed’ cell cycle by using centrifugal elutriation to differentially enrich distinct cell cycle phases in human NB4 cells. In this study, hes compare data from elutriated cells with NB4 cells arrested at comparable phases using serum starvation, hydroxyurea, or RO-3306. While elutriated and arrested cells have similar patterns of DNA content and cyclin expression, a large fraction of the proteome changes detected in arrested cells are found to reflect arrest-specific responses (i.e., starvation, DNA damage, CDK1 inhibition), rather than physiological cell cycle regulation. For example, the group has demonstrated how most cells arrested in G2 by CDK1 inhibition express abnormally high levels of replication and origin licensing factors and are likely poised for genome re-replication. The protein data is available in the Encyclopedia of Proteome Dynamics.
