The Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Biology, NIDDK, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
Mitotic progression requires the dissolution of cohesion between sister chromatids. Cohesion is dissolved by an essential protease known as separase. Separase is highly conserved throughout evolution and is subjected to multiple levels of regulation. Here we discuss recent studies that unravel several key mechanisms for regulating separase activity.