Stage-specific proteolysis of mitotic cyclins is fundamental to eukaryotic cell cycle regulation. We found that yeast Hct1, a conserved protein of eukaryotes, is a necessary and rate-limiting component of this proteolysis pathway. In hct1 mutants, the mitotic cyclin Clb2 is highly stabilized and inappropriately induces DNA replication, while G1 cyclins and other proteolytic substrates remain short-lived. Viability of hct1 mutants depends on SIC1. This and further results suggest that inhibition of cyclin-dependent kinases may compensate for defects in cyclin proteolysis. Remarkably, elevated levels of Hct1 ectopically activate destruction box- and Cdc23-dependent degradation of Clb2 and cause phenotypic effects characteristic for a depletion of M-phase cyclins. Hct1 and the related Cdc20 may function as substrate-specific regulators of proteolysis during mitosis.

Proteolysis of mitotic cyclins depends on a multisubunit ubiquitin-protein ligase, the anaphase promoting complex (APC). Proteolysis commences during anaphase, persisting throughout G1 until it is terminated by cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) as cells enter S phase. Proteolysis of mitotic cyclins in yeast was shown to require association of the APC with the substrate-specific activator Hct1 (also called Cdh1). Phosphorylation of Hct1 by CDKs blocked the Hct1-APC interaction. The mutual inhibition between APC and CDKs explains how cells suppress mitotic CDK activity during G1 and then establish a period with elevated kinase activity from S phase until anaphase.

The SCF (Skp1-Cullin-F-box) E3 ubiquitin ligase family was discovered through genetic requirements for cell cycle progression in budding yeast. In these multisubunit enzymes, an invariant core complex, composed of the Skp1 linker protein, the Cdc53/Cul1 scaffold protein and the Rbx1/Roc1/Hrt1 RING domain protein, engages one of a suite of substrate adaptors called F-box proteins that in turn recruit substrates for ubiquitination by an associated E2 enzyme. The cullin-RING domain-adaptor architecture has diversified through evolution, such that in total many hundreds of distinct SCF and SCF-like complexes enable degradation of myriad substrates. Substrate recognition by adaptors often depends on posttranslational modification of the substrate, which thus places substrate stability under dynamic regulation by intracellular signaling events. SCF complexes control cell proliferation through degradation of critical regulators such as cyclins, CDK inhibitors and transcription factors. A plethora of other processes in development and disease are controlled by other SCF-like complexes, including those based on Cul2-SOCS-box adaptor protein and Cul3-BTB domain adaptor protein combinations. Recent structural insights into SCF-like complexes have begun to illuminate aspects of substrate recognition and catalytic reaction mechanisms.