Cell Cycle Checkpoint - Metaphase Checkpoint

Metaphase Checkpoint

The mitotic spindle checkpoint occurs at the point in metaphase where all the chromosomes have/should aligned at the mitotic plate and be under bipolar tension. The tension created by this bipolar attachment is what is sensed, which initiates the anaphase entry. To do this, the sensing mechanism ensures that the anaphase-promoting complex (APC/C) is no longer inhibited, which is now free to degrade cyclin B, which harbors a D-box (destruction box), and to break down securin. The latter is a protein whose function is to inhibit separase, which in turn cuts the cohesins, the protein composite responsible for cohesion of sister chromatids. Once this inhibitory protein is degraded via ubiquitination and subsequent proteolysis, separase then causes sister chromatid separation. After the cell has split into its two daughter cells, the cell enters G₁.