Duration of embryonic cell division

Range 8 to >180 minutes
Organism Fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster
Reference Progression of the cell cycle through mitosis leads to abortion of nascent transcripts, Shermoen and O'Farrell, 1991, Oct 18 67(2):303-10 p.303 left column 3rd paragraphPubMed ID1680567
Comments "In many organisms, embryonic cell cycles are short (8 min in Drosophila, 30 min in frog, and 3 hr in mouse). Indeed, these cell cycle times are shorter than the transcription times of long genes." "Genes governing embryonic pattern formation in Drosophila have transcription units ranging from about 2 kb to 105 kb and would be expected to have transcription times between about 1.5 min and 75 min. During the period when these genes are expressed, cell cycle times change from as short as 8 min to more than 180 min."
Entered by Uri M
ID 101971