Cell cycle checkpoint

The term checkpoint has been taken from molecular biology to a checkpoint - and at the same time the underlying control mechanism - to describe that regulates the timing of cell cycle processes.

The activation of cell cycle checkpoints was originally described as a response to specific cellular malfunction, but now is the idea spread that checkpoints are integral components of physiological cell cycle processes.

So is meant by the mitotic checkpoint (also spindle checkpoint ) a mechanism to coordinate the timing of mitosis with the attachment of kinetochores to the mitotic spindle apparatus.