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Nature 443, 513-515 (5 October 2006) | doi:10.1038/443513a; Published online 4 October 2006

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Cell cycle: Complex evolution

Gavin Sherlock1

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Cell division is fundamental to life, and so might be expected to have changed little during evolution. Data from four species show that the genes involved can vary, but the regulation of complexes is a common theme.

There are many core biological processes for which different organisms use essentially the same proteins to carry out certain tasks. These equivalent proteins, known as orthologues, are mostly very similar in terms of their protein sequence.

  1. Gavin Sherlock is in the Department of Genetics, 300 Pasteur Drive, Stanford University Medical School, Stanford, California 94305-5120, USA.
    Email: sherlock@genome.stanford.edu

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