Case 3: Checkpoint Charlie

Janet’s sister and brother-in-law, Jenny and Philip, want to have another baby and Janet
is wondering what the differences are between normal cell division and the cell division
process that ultimately creates spermatozoa and oocytes. She knows from her year
studying health sciences that the replication of the genome is not a stand-alone event. A
cell only starts duplicating the genome when certain conditions are met. Only then can
the actual proliferation start. An example of such a condition is the presence of growth
factors. The cell will start to proliferate if these are present in sufficient quantities. How is
a cell able to start replicating its DNA in response to these growth factors?
If you think about it carefully, everything suddenly seems less straightforward than it
first appeared. How does the cell make sure that it only duplicates its DNA once during a
single cycle? How does the cell know what the next step after DNA replication is, in other
words what stage of the cycle it is in? How does the cell ensure that all the chromatids
are correctly split across the daughter cells?
To prevent unrestricted proliferation, the cell must have a variety of controls or
“checkpoints”. The proliferation can then be stopped at that point if the conditions are
unfavourable or even harmful, such as for example when the DNA is damaged.
A special type of cell division occurs when the spermatozoa and oocytes are produced.
Spermatozoa can only fertilise a properly mature egg cell, after which the first cell
divisions can take place in this new living entity.

Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences

ITM1101

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