Deciphering the spatio-temporal regulation of entry and progression through mitosis

Mitosis has been studied since the early 1880s as a key event of the cell division cycle where remarkable changes in cellular architecture take place and ultimately lead to an equal segregation of duplicated chromosomes into two daughter cells. A detailed description of the complex and highly ordered cellular events taking place is now available. Many regulators involved in key steps including entry into mitosis, nuclear envelope breakdown, microtubule (MT) spindle formation, and chromosome attachment, as well as mitotic exit and cytokinesis, have also been identified. However, understanding the precise spatio-temporal contribution of each regulator in the cell reorganization process has been technically challenging. This review will focus on a number of recent advances in our understanding of the spatial distribution of protein activities and the temporal regulation of their activation and inactivation during entry and progression through mitosis by the use of intramolecular Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based biosensors.