Effect of Phosphorylation on Dbf2 in Cytokinesis

Cytokinesis is the physical process of cell division, which divides the cytoplasm between the two new daughter cells. One important pathway that regulates Cytokinesis is called the Mitotic Exit Network, or MEN for short. The MEN is signaling pathway that allow a dividing cell to complete cytokinesis and exit mitosis. Of the many proteins involved in the MEN, the particular protein being researched is a kinase called Dbf2. Of interest is the regulation of Dbf2 by phosphorylation. Mutant alleles of the dbf2 gene that prevent phosphorylation or dephosphorylation have been created on a plasmid. The plasmid is duplicated and purified from bacterial cells, then inserted in yeast cells, the model organism used for study of cytokinesis. After growth of the yeast colonies, the cells with Dbf2 mutations can be observed during mitosis through use of fluorescence microscopy to determine the effects of the mutations on cytokinesis