Recently, we have shown that phenyl hydroquinone, a hepatic metabolite of the Ames test-negative carcinogen o-phenylphenol, efficiently induced aneuploidy in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We further found that phenyl hydroquinone arrested the cell cycle at G1 and G2 ⁄M. In this study, we demonstrate that phenyl hydroquinone can arrest the cell cycle at the G2 ⁄M transition as a result of stabilization of Swe1 (a Wee1 homolog), probably leading to inactivation of Cdc28 (a Cdk1⁄Cdc2 homolog).
