Workgroup 5 “Mitosis and Meiosis”

Simone Reber
simone.reber@iri-lifesciences.de

Thomas Mayer
thomas.u.mayer@uni-konstanz.de

Summary

Mitosis and meiosis are two kinds of cell division that are essential to most forms of life on earth. While mitotic divisions produce identical daughter cells after key cellular components have been duplicated during S-phase, meiosis involves two successive cell divisions without intervening S-phase resulting in the formation of haploid offspring. Errors during mitotic or meiotic divisions can be causative for the development of severe human diseases such as cancer or trisomies. It is therefore of utmost importance to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying mitotic and meiotic divisions and how defects in these processes are linked to human diseases. A great challenge on the route towards a comprehensive molecular understanding is the complexity and great dynamicity of cellular divisions. Furthermore, it will be interesting to learn how specialised cells deviate from conserved principles of cell cycle regulation to allow for cell division and evolution in different environments.