scholarly journals Higher order chromosome structure is affected by cold-sensitive mutations in a Schizosaccharomyces pombe gene crm1+ which encodes a 115-kD protein preferentially localized in the nucleus and its periphery.

1989 ◽  
Vol 108 (4) ◽  
pp. 1195-1207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y Adachi ◽  
M Yanagida

We isolated a novel class of Schizosaccharomyces pombe cold-sensitive mutants with deformed nuclear chromosome domains consisting of thread- or rodlike condensed segments at restrictive temperature. Their mutations were mapped in a novel, identical locus designated crm1 (chromosomal region maintenance). The crm1 mutants also show the following phenotypes. DNA, RNA, and protein syntheses diminish at restrictive temperature. At permissive temperature, the amount of one particular protein, p25, greatly increases. The mutant growth is hypersensitive to Ca2+ and resistant to protein kinase inhibitors. We cloned the 4.1-kb-long crm1+ gene that rescued the above phenotypes by transformation and determined its nucleotide sequence, which predicts a 1,077-residue protein. Affinity-purified antiserum raised against the crm1+ polypeptide expressed in Escherichia coli detected a 115-kD protein in S. pombe extracts. Genomic Southern hybridization and immunoblotting suggested that the crm1+ product might be highly conserved in distant organisms. Through immunofluorescence microscopy, the crm1+ protein appeared to be principally localized within the nucleus and also at its periphery. We speculate that the crm1+ protein might be one of those nuclear components that modify the chromosome structures or regulate the nuclear environment required for maintaining higher order chromosome structures.

1993 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4691-4702 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z Xiao ◽  
J T McGrew ◽  
A J Schroeder ◽  
M Fitzgerald-Hayes

By monitoring the mitotic transmission of a marked chromosome bearing a defective centromere, we have identified conditional alleles of two genes involved in chromosome segregation (cse). Mutations in CSE1 and CSE2 have a greater effect on the segregation of chromosomes carrying mutant centromeres than on the segregation of chromosomes with wild-type centromeres. In addition, the cse mutations cause predominantly nondisjunction rather than loss events but do not cause a detectable increase in mitotic recombination. At the restrictive temperature, cse1 and cse2 mutants accumulate large-budded cells, with a significant fraction exhibiting aberrant binucleate morphologies. We cloned the CSE1 and CSE2 genes by complementation of the cold-sensitive phenotypes. Physical and genetic mapping data indicate that CSE1 is linked to HAP2 on the left arm of chromosome VII and CSE2 is adjacent to PRP2 on chromosome XIV. CSE1 is essential and encodes a novel 109-kDa protein. CSE2 encodes a 17-kDa protein with a putative basic-region leucine zipper motif. Disruption of CSE2 causes chromosome missegregation, conditional lethality, and slow growth at the permissive temperature.


1993 ◽  
Vol 4 (10) ◽  
pp. 1003-1015 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Miyake ◽  
N Okishio ◽  
I Samejima ◽  
Y Hiraoka ◽  
T Toda ◽  
...  

Fission yeast cold-sensitive mutants nda1-376 and nda4-108 display a cell cycle block phenotype at the restrictive temperature (cell elongation with the single nucleus) accompanied by an alteration in the nuclear chromatin region. DNA content analysis shows that the onset of DNA synthesis is blocked or greatly delayed in both mutant cells, the block being reversible in nda4-108. Upon release to the permissive temperature, nda4-108 cells resumed replicating DNA, followed by mitosis and cytokinesis. The nda4 phenotype was partly rescued by the addition of Ca2+ to the medium; Ca2+ plays a positive role in the nda4+ function. The predicted protein sequences of nda1+ and nda4+ isolated by complementation are similar to each other and also, respectively, to those of the budding yeast, MCM2 and CDC46, both of which are members of the gene family required for the initiation of DNA replication. The central domains of these proteins are conserved, whereas the NH2- and COOH- domains are distinct. Results of the disruption of the nda1+ and nda4+ genes demonstrates that they are essential for viability.


1988 ◽  
Vol 106 (4) ◽  
pp. 1171-1183 ◽  
Author(s):  
T Hirano ◽  
Y Hiraoka ◽  
M Yanagida

A temperature-sensitive mutant nuc2-663 of the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe specifically blocks mitotic spindle elongation at restrictive temperature so that nuclei in arrested cells contain a short uniform spindle (approximately 3-micron long), which runs through a metaphase plate-like structure consisting of three condensed chromosomes. In the wild-type or in the mutant cells at permissive temperature, the spindle is fully extended approximately 15-micron long in anaphase. The nuc2' gene was cloned in a 2.4-kb genomic DNA fragment by transformation, and its complete nucleotide sequence was determined. Its coding region predicts a 665-residues internally repeating protein (76.250 mol wt). By immunoblots using anti-sera raised against lacZ-nuc2+ fused proteins, a polypeptide (designated p67; 67,000 mol wt) encoded by nuc2+ is detected in the wild-type S. pombe extracts; the amount of p67 is greatly increased when multi-copy or high-expression plasmids carrying the nuc2+ gene are introduced into the S. pombe cells. Cellular fractionation and Percoll gradient centrifugation combined with immunoblotting show that p67 cofractionates with nuclei and is enriched in resistant structure that is insoluble in 2 M NaCl, 25 mM lithium 3,5'-diiodosalicylate, and 1% Triton but is soluble in 8 M urea. In nuc2 mutant cells, however, soluble p76, perhaps an unprocessed precursor, accumulates in addition to insoluble p67. The role of nuc2+ gene may be to interconnect nuclear and cytoskeletal functions in chromosome separation.


1993 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4691-4702 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z Xiao ◽  
J T McGrew ◽  
A J Schroeder ◽  
M Fitzgerald-Hayes

By monitoring the mitotic transmission of a marked chromosome bearing a defective centromere, we have identified conditional alleles of two genes involved in chromosome segregation (cse). Mutations in CSE1 and CSE2 have a greater effect on the segregation of chromosomes carrying mutant centromeres than on the segregation of chromosomes with wild-type centromeres. In addition, the cse mutations cause predominantly nondisjunction rather than loss events but do not cause a detectable increase in mitotic recombination. At the restrictive temperature, cse1 and cse2 mutants accumulate large-budded cells, with a significant fraction exhibiting aberrant binucleate morphologies. We cloned the CSE1 and CSE2 genes by complementation of the cold-sensitive phenotypes. Physical and genetic mapping data indicate that CSE1 is linked to HAP2 on the left arm of chromosome VII and CSE2 is adjacent to PRP2 on chromosome XIV. CSE1 is essential and encodes a novel 109-kDa protein. CSE2 encodes a 17-kDa protein with a putative basic-region leucine zipper motif. Disruption of CSE2 causes chromosome missegregation, conditional lethality, and slow growth at the permissive temperature.


1999 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 3991-4003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Midori Shimada ◽  
Daisuke Okuzaki ◽  
Seiji Tanaka ◽  
Takahiro Tougan ◽  
Katsuyuki K. Tamai ◽  
...  

We report here the isolation and functional analysis of therfc3 + gene of Schizosaccharomyces pombe, which encodes the third subunit of replication factor C (RFC3). Because the rfc3 + gene was essential for growth, we isolated temperature-sensitive mutants. One of the mutants, rfc3-1, showed aberrant mitosis with fragmented or unevenly separated chromosomes at the restrictive temperature. In this mutant protein, arginine 216 was replaced by tryptophan. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis suggested that rfc3-1cells had defects in DNA replication. rfc3-1 cells were sensitive to hydroxyurea, methanesulfonate (MMS), and gamma and UV irradiation even at the permissive temperature, and the viabilities after these treatments were decreased. Using cells synchronized in early G2 by centrifugal elutriation, we found that the replication checkpoint triggered by hydroxyurea and the DNA damage checkpoint caused by MMS and gamma irradiation were impaired inrfc3-1 cells. Association of Rfc3 and Rad17 in vivo and a significant reduction of the phosphorylated form of Chk1 inrfc3-1 cells after treatments with MMS and gamma or UV irradiation suggested that the checkpoint signal emitted by Rfc3 is linked to the downstream checkpoint machinery via Rad17 and Chk1. From these results, we conclude that rfc3 + is required not only for DNA replication but also for replication and damage checkpoint controls, probably functioning as a checkpoint sensor.


1989 ◽  
Vol 93 (1) ◽  
pp. 185-189
Author(s):  
J. Creanor ◽  
J.M. Mitchison

Synchrony was induced in cultures of the mitotic mutant cdc2.33 of Schizosaccharomyces pombe by shifting up an asynchronous culture to the restrictive temperature for a period of 3.5-4.5 h and then shifting down to the permissive temperature. The resulting synchronous divisions had short cycle times, down to 50% of the normal cycle. The oscillatory control of nucleoside diphosphokinase activity was also synchronized by the shift-down and the activity rose in a step pattern. Unlike the situation in the normal cycle, this step pattern was dissociated from the shortened cell cycle and had a longer period and different phase relations. It may be that the normal entrainment or coupling between the cell cycle and the activity control fails if the cell cycle is too short. The period of the activity control (equal to the protein doubling time at the restrictive temperature) appears to be temperature-compensated.


Genetics ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 96 (4) ◽  
pp. 939-965
Author(s):  
Jeffrey C Hall ◽  
Stamatis N Alahiotis ◽  
David A Strumpf ◽  
Kristin White

ABSTRACT Temperature-sensitive (ts) mutants of the Ace gene, which codes for acetylcholinesterase (AChE) in Drosophila melanogaster, were analyzed for defects in viability, behavior and function of the enzyme. The use of heat-sensitive and cold-sensitive mutations permited the function of AChE in the nervous system to be analyzed temporally. All ts mutations were lethal, or nearly so, when animals expressing them were subjected to restrictive temperatures during late embryonic and very early larval stages. Heat treatments to Ace-ts mid- and late larvae had little effect on the behavior of these animals or on the viability or behavior of the eventual adults. Heat-sensitive mutants exposed to nonpermissive temperatures as pupae, by contrast, had severe defects in phototaxis and locomotor activity as adults. AChE extracted from adult ts mutants that had developed at a permissive temperature were abnormally heat labile, and they had reduced substrate affinity when assayed at restrictive temperatures. However, enzyme activity did not decline during exposure of heat-sensitive adults to high temperatures even though such treatments caused decrements in phototaxis (29°) and, eventually, cessation of movement (31°). The cold-sensitive mutant also produced readily detectable levels of AChE when exposed to a restrictive temperature during the early developmental stage when this mutation causes almost complete lethality. We suggest that the relationship among the genetic, biochemical and neurobiological defects in these mutants may involve more than merely temperature-sensitive catalytic functions.


1980 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. D. Murray ◽  
W. E. Inniss

A cold-sensitive (CS) mutant of the psychrotroph, Bacillus psychrophilus, was obtained by N-methyl-N′-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine mutagenization and penicillin counterselection. In the presence of citrate, the wild type grew well at both 5 and 20 °C whereas the CS mutant grew well at 20 °C (the permissive temperature) but, at 5 °C (the restrictive temperature), grew at a reduced rate for two to three generations followed by a complete plateau in growth. Upon return of the CS mutant to 20 °C, after a delay of about 40 h, growth resumed at the appropriate rate. The CS mutant exhibited growth rates similar to parental rates on a wide variety of carbon sources at 5 °C, but when Krebs cycle intermediates were used as substrates and in the presence of an equimolar amount of citrate, the typical cold-sensitive growth pattern occurred. Comparison of oxidative phosphorylation in the parent and CS mutant indicated that no phosphorylation occurred at 5 °C in the CS mutant during the plateau in growth. Examination of the effect of temperature on ATPase activity showed that at 5 °C the specific activity of ATPase isolated from the CS mutant grown at 5 °C was 15-fold less than the ATPases isolated from wild-type cells grown at either 5 or 20 °C and 10.5-fold lower than ATPase from CS mutant cells grown at 20 °C. The large reduction in CS mutant ATPase activity at 5 °C appears to be at least partly due to an effect on synthesis since citrate did not inhibit preformed ATPase.


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