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Within eukaryotes, DNA replication is controlled within the context of the cell cycle. As the cell grows and divides, it progresses through stages in the cell cycle; DNA replication takes place during the S phase (synthesis phase). The progress of the eukaryotic cell through the cycle is controlled by cell cycle checkpoints.
The cell cycle is a series of complex, ordered, sequential events that control how a single cell divides into two cells, and involves several different phases. The phases include the G1 and G2 phases, DNA replication or S phase, and the actual process of cell division, mitosis or M phase. [1]
The eukaryotic cell cycle consists of four distinct phases: G 1 phase, S phase (synthesis), G 2 phase (collectively known as interphase) and M phase (mitosis and cytokinesis). M phase is itself composed of two tightly coupled processes: mitosis, in which the cell's nucleus divides, and cytokinesis, in which the cell's cytoplasm and cell membrane divides forming two daughter cells.
During the S-phase of each cell cycle (Figure 1), all of the DNA in a cell is duplicated in order to provide one copy to each of the daughter cells after the next cell division. The process of duplicating DNA is called DNA replication, and it takes place by first unwinding the duplex DNA molecule, starting at many locations called DNA ...
Interphase is the process through which a cell must go before mitosis, meiosis, and cytokinesis. [15] Interphase consists of three main phases: G 1, S, and G 2. G 1 is a time of growth for the cell where specialized cellular functions occur in order to prepare the cell for DNA replication. [16]
The typical normal human fetal cell will divide between 50 and 70 times before experiencing senescence. As the cell divides, the telomeres on the ends of chromosomes shorten. The Hayflick limit is the limit on cell replication imposed by the shortening of telomeres with each division. This end stage is known as cellular senescence.
In order to preserve genetic information during cell division, DNA replication must be completed with high fidelity. In order to achieve this task, eukaryotic cells have proteins in place during certain points in the replication process that are able to detect any errors during DNA replication and are able to preserve genomic integrity.
Overview of chromosome duplication in the cell cycle. Assembly of the pre-replication complex only occurs during late M phase and early G1 phase of the cell cycle when cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) activity is low. This timing and other regulatory mechanisms ensure that DNA replication will only occur once per cell cycle.