{"title":"Xenopus cell-free extracts and their contribution to the study of DNA replication and other complex biological processes.","authors":"J Julian Blow, Ronald A Laskey","doi":"10.1387/ijdb.160142jb","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Here we discuss the important contributions that cell-free extracts have made to the study of complex biological processes. We provide a brief history of how cell-free extracts of frog eggs were developed to avoid many of the problems that can arise from the dilution and mixing of cellular components that typically occur when cell-free extracts are prepared. We briefly describe how Xenopus egg extracts have been fundamental to the study of many important cellular processes including DNA replication, cell cycle progression, nuclear protein import, nuclear assembly and chromosome organisation. We describe how, in particular, Xenopus egg extracts have made a major contributions to the study of DNA replication, by permitting the direct manipulation of proteins in a system that is extraordinarily faithful to the way that DNA replication occurs in the living embryo. Finally we consider how results obtained using Xenopus egg extracts are being translated to produce diagnostic reagents for cancer screening and diagnosis.</p>","PeriodicalId":94228,"journal":{"name":"The International journal of developmental biology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"The International journal of developmental biology","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1387/ijdb.160142jb","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Here we discuss the important contributions that cell-free extracts have made to the study of complex biological processes. We provide a brief history of how cell-free extracts of frog eggs were developed to avoid many of the problems that can arise from the dilution and mixing of cellular components that typically occur when cell-free extracts are prepared. We briefly describe how Xenopus egg extracts have been fundamental to the study of many important cellular processes including DNA replication, cell cycle progression, nuclear protein import, nuclear assembly and chromosome organisation. We describe how, in particular, Xenopus egg extracts have made a major contributions to the study of DNA replication, by permitting the direct manipulation of proteins in a system that is extraordinarily faithful to the way that DNA replication occurs in the living embryo. Finally we consider how results obtained using Xenopus egg extracts are being translated to produce diagnostic reagents for cancer screening and diagnosis.
在此,我们将讨论无细胞提取物对复杂生物过程研究的重要贡献。我们简要介绍了蛙卵无细胞提取物的开发历程,以避免在制备无细胞提取物时通常会出现的细胞成分稀释和混合问题。我们简要介绍了爪蟾卵提取物如何成为研究 DNA 复制、细胞周期进展、核蛋白输入、核组装和染色体组织等许多重要细胞过程的基础。我们特别描述了爪蟾卵提取物如何对 DNA 复制研究做出重大贡献,因为它允许在一个异常忠实于 DNA 复制在活胚胎中发生方式的系统中直接操纵蛋白质。最后,我们将探讨如何把利用章鱼卵提取物取得的成果转化为癌症筛查和诊断试剂。