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Updated: Feb 18, 2026

Studying Proteolysis of Cyclin B at the Single Cell Level in Whole Cell Populations
Published on: September 17, 2012
Visualizing the complex functions and mechanisms of the anaphase promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C)
Claudio Alfieri1, Suyang Zhang1, David Barford2
1MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Francis Crick Avenue, Cambridge CB2 0QH, UK.
None:
The anaphase promoting complex or cyclosome (APC/C) is a large multi-subunit E3 ubiquitin ligase that orchestrates cell cycle progression by mediating the degradation of important cell cycle regulators. During the two decades since its discovery, much has been learnt concerning its role in recognizing and ubiquitinating specific proteins in a cell-cycle-dependent manner, the mechanisms governing substrate specificity, the catalytic process of assembling polyubiquitin chains on its target proteins, and its regulation by phosphorylation and the spindle assembly checkpoint. The past few years have witnessed significant progress in understanding the quantitative mechanisms underlying these varied APC/C functions. This review integrates the overall functions and properties of the APC/C with mechanistic insights gained from recent cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) studies of reconstituted human APC/C complexes.
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