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Asymmetric cell division

Abstract

With the recent identification of intrinsic cell-fate determinants for asymmetric cell division in several systems, biologists have begun to gain insight into the cellular mechanisms by which these determinants are preferentially segregated into one of the two daughter cells during mitosis so that the daughter cells acquire different fates.

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Figure 1: Asymmetric localization of determinants.
Figure 2: A genetic pathway for asymmetric localization of determinants in Drosophila.
Figure 3: An interplay between the intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms for asymmetric cell division.

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Acknowledgements

We thank our colleagues S. Abdelilah, J. Brenman, F.-B. Gao, L. Sharp, C.-P. Shen, S.Younger-Shepherd, C. Zeng and especially Y.-M. Chan for helpful comments on this article. We are both Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators.

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Jan, Y., Jan, L. Asymmetric cell division. Nature 392, 775–778 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/33854

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