Mechanisms to control rereplication and implications for cancer

Recent advances in the replication field have highlighted how the replication initiator proteins are negatively regulated by inhibitor proteins and ubiquitin-mediated degradation in mammalian cells to prevent rereplication. When these regulatory pathways go awry, uncontrolled rereplication ensues and a G2/M checkpoint is evoked to prevent cellular death. Many components of the checkpoints activated by rereplicaton are important for cancer prevention by facilitating DNA damage repair processes. The pathways that prevent rereplication themselves have also recently been implicated in preventing tumorigenesis. Studies from patient tumors, genetically altered mice, and mammalian cell culture suggest that deregulation of replication licensing proteins results in an increase in aneuploidy, chromosomal fusions, and DNA breaks. These studies provide a framework to address how regulators of replication function to maintain genomic stability.