Cyclin mRNA stability does not vary during the cell cycle.

The cyclins are tightly regulated elements governing eukaryotic cell cycle progression by means of sequential activation-inactivation of cyclin-dependent kinases. In one manifestation of this regulation, the mRNA levels of several cyclin genes oscillate during the cycle in mammalian cells. Such cycle-dependent fluctuations in transcript levels could result from changes not only in rates of transcription, but also in mRNA stability. Here we used a new, minimally-disturbing method for producing multi-cycle synchronous growth of human MOLT-4 cells, in combination with quantitative real-time RT-PCR, to compare cell cycle-dependent transcript levels and half-lives of cyclin A2, B1, D3, E and PCNA mRNAs. While all mRNA levels except cyclin D3 varied in the cycle, there were no apparent variations in message half-lives. This differs from several previous reports of dramatic fluctuations in the stabilities of cyclin mRNAs, and infers that fluctuations in cyclin mRNA transcript levels during the MOLT-4 cell cycle are not due to variations in half-lives. The discrepancy in mRNA stability determinations could be due to differences in cell types or synchronization methods, but our findings may be representative of mRNA processing in the cycle of cells in unstressed steady-state growth.