Meiosis reinitiation as a model system for the study of cell division and cell differentiation

In this paper, we review our findings concerning the control of meiosis reinitiation in starfish oocytes and discuss recent advances that lead to characterization of the maturation promoting factor (MPF) responsible for G2-M transition. It is now agreed that appearance of this factor, which triggers nuclear envelope breakdown, chromosome condensation and metaphase spindle formation, corresponds to the activation of a M-phase specific H1-kinase. MPF has been shown to be constituted of equimolar amounts of a 34 kDa catalytic subunit protein homologous to the yeast cdc2/CDC28 gene product and a cyclin protein homologous to the yeast cdc13 gene product. "In vivo" and "in vitro" studies based on the use of inhibitors of protein synthesis, protein kinases, phosphoprotein phosphatases and proteases lead to a better understanding of the complex series of events which regulate activation and inactivation of MPF. In the unfertilized metaphase 2-arrested vertebrate oocyte, it has also been shown that stabilization of MPF depends on the kinase activity of the c-mos protooncogene. This review attempts to illustrate how the significant progress made in the understanding of the regulation of cell cycle transverse directly resulted from the convergence of observations in multidisciplinary studies in yeast genetics, development and oncogenesis. It also offers a model for considering the highly integrated events which, starting at the level of the plasma membrane, may eventually result in early cell differentiation.