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Nature 423, 818-819 (19 June 2003) | doi:10.1038/423818b

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Cell cycle: Degradation ensures integrity

Anatoliy Li & J. Julian Blow

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Protein degradation terminates a range of biochemical activities in living cells. New work shows that a component of the 'licensing' system for DNA replication must be degraded to prevent re-replication during cell division.

How would you ensure that a biochemical reaction is irreversible? This is a key problem in living organisms, because many of their control systems must progress unidirectionally through a series of different states.

  1. Anatoliy Li and J. Julian Blow are in the Cancer Research UK Chromosome Replication Research Group, Wellcome Trust Biocentre, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 5EH, UK.

Correspondence to: J. Julian Blow e-mail: Email: j.j.blow@dundee.ac.uk