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Updated: Oct 11, 2025

Live Cell Imaging of Chromosome Segregation During Mitosis
Published on: March 14, 2018
Minichromosome maintenance proteins in eukaryotic chromosome segregation
Gunjan Mehta1, Kaustuv Sanyal2, Suman Abhishek1
1Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, Kandi, Telangana, India.
Abstract:
Minichromosome maintenance (Mcm) proteins are well-known for their functions in DNA replication. However, their roles in chromosome segregation are yet to be reviewed in detail. Following the discovery in 1984, a group of Mcm proteins, known as the ARS-nonspecific group consisting of Mcm13, Mcm16-19, and Mcm21-22, were characterized as bonafide kinetochore proteins and were shown to play significant roles in the kinetochore assembly and high-fidelity chromosome segregation. This review focuses on the structure, function, and evolution of this group of Mcm proteins. Our in silico analysis of the physical interactors of these proteins reveals that they share non-overlapping functions despite being copurified in biochemically stable complexes. We have discussed the contrasting results reported in the literature and experimental strategies to address them. Taken together, this review focuses on the structure-function of the ARS-nonspecific Mcm proteins and their evolutionary flexibility to maintain genome stability in various organisms.
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