Original Article

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Assembly of a parts list of the human mitotic cell cycle machinery
Bruno Giotti 1,2, Sz-Hau Chen1, Mark W. Barnett1, Tim Regan1, Tony Ly3, Stefan Wiemann4, David A. Hume 1,5 , and Tom C. Freeman 1,*
1 The Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh, Easter Bush, Midlothian EH25 9RG, Scotland, UK
2 Biosciences and Biotechnology Institute, EDyP Department, CEA Grenoble, 17 rue des Martyrs, 38054 Grenoble, France
3 Wellcome Centre for Cell Biology, University of Edinburgh, Swann Building, Edinburgh EH9 3BF, Scotland, UK
4 Molecular Genome Analysis (B050), Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, Im Neuenheimer Feld 580, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
5 Mater Research Institute, University of Queensland, Level 3, Aubigny Place, Raymond Terrace, South Brisbane, Qld 4101, Australia
*Correspondence to:Tom C. Freeman, E-mail: tom.freeman@roslin.ed.ac.uk
J Mol Cell Biol, Volume 11, Issue 8, August 2019, 703-718,  https://doi.org/10.1093/jmcb/mjy063

The set of proteins required for mitotic division remains poorly characterized. Here, an extensive series of correlation analyses of human and mouse transcriptomics data were performed to identify genes strongly and reproducibly associated with cells undergoing S/G2-M phases of the cell cycle. In so doing, 701 cell cycle-associated genes were defined and while it was shown that many are only expressed during these phases, the expression of others is also driven by alternative promoters. Of this list, 496 genes have known cell cycle functions, whereas 205 were assigned as putative cell cycle genes, 53 of which are functionally uncharacterized. Among these, 27 were screened for subcellular localization revealing many to be nuclear localized and at least three to be novel centrosomal proteins. Furthermore, 10 others inhibited cell proliferation upon siRNA knockdown. This study presents the first comprehensive list of human cell cycle proteins, identifying many new candidate proteins.