Minichromosome Maintenance Proteins as Markers for Proliferation Zones During Embryogenesis

Regulation of cell proliferation is of fundamental importance for growth andprevention of cancer. An obligatory step in the regulation of cell proliferation is thecontrol of the initiation of DNA synthesis. The minichromosome maintenance (MCM)proteins are essential DNA replication factors crucial for initiating DNA synthesis onceevery cell cycle. Recent studies show that the level of MCM proteins is stringentlyregulated to correlate with cell proliferation and carcinogenesis. Here we discuss ourrecent data, which highlights the usefulness of minichromosome maintenance (MCM)gene expression for detecting proliferating cells as well as zones containingproliferative/stem cells during embryogenesis in a whole organism.