MITOSIS IN THE DROSOPHILA EMBRYO - IN AND OUT OF CONTROL

Increasing levels of regulation act upon mitosis as the Drosophila embryo develops. The first 13 rapid cycles in the syncytial embryo rely on maternal gene products and lack feedback regulation to monitor the completion of S phase. Such regulation is introduced together with a G2 phase in cycle 14, and the network of universal mitotic regulators comes under the overall control of string, a cdc25 homologue, whose transcription is activated within mitotic domains.