Strong inducible knockdown of APC/CCdc20 does not cause mitotic arrest in human somatic cells

The anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C) is a conserved ubiquitin ligase controlling mitosis and G(1) phase of the cell cycle. The APC/C is activated by two regulatory subunits Cdc20 (APC/C-Cdc20) and Cdh1 (APC/C-Cdh1) to target securin, mitotic cyclins and other cell cycle regulatory proteins. Cdc20 is essential for sister chromatid separation at the meta- to anaphase transition in yeast, drosophila and perhaps mouse embryos. However, whether Cdc20 is essential for mitotic control of human somatic cells is uncertain. Therefore, we used a lentiviral vector-mediated inducible RNA interference (RNAi) system to generate strong downregulation of Cdc20 expression in clonal cells to further elucidate the role of human Cdc20. Here we show, that even an almost complete knockdown of Cdc20 below the detection limit in western blots does neither cause a mitotic block nor significant stabilization of the APC/C-Cdc20 substrates cyclin B and securin. Thus, there may be redundant mechanisms of mitotic control in the human somatic cell cycle.