The anaphase promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C) is a ubiquitin ligase that has essential functions in and outside the eukaryotic cell cycle. Accurate chromosome segregation during mitosis requires the coordinated destruction of the mitotic regulators securin and cyclins.
The anaphase-promoting complex (APC complex) is a multisubunit ubiquitin-protein ligase that catalyzes the polyubiquitination of these and other proteins and thereby promotes their destruction.
In mitosis, the APC activator Cdc20 binds to the APC and is thought to recruit substrates by interacting with a conserved target protein motif called the destruction box. A related protein, called Cdh1, performs a similar function during G1.
It is the most complex molecular machine that is known to catalyse ubiquitylation reactions, and it contains more than a dozen subunits that assemble into a large 1.5-MDa complex.
References
Peters JM. The anaphase promoting complex/cyclosome: a machine designed to destroy. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2006 Sep;7(9):644-56. PMID: 16896351
Carroll CW, Enquist-Newman M, Morgan DO. The APC Subunit Doc1 Promotes Recognition of the Substrate Destruction Box. Curr Biol. 2005 Jan 11;15(1):11-8. PMID: 15649358
Jackson PK. Linking tumor suppression, DNA damage and the anaphase-promoting complex. Trends Cell Biol. 2004 Jul;14(7):331-4. PMID: 15246424