scholarly journals Cell size–dependent regulation of Wee1 localization by Cdr2 cortical nodes

2018 ◽  
Vol 217 (5) ◽  
pp. 1589-1599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corey A.H. Allard ◽  
Hannah E. Opalko ◽  
Ko-Wei Liu ◽  
Uche Medoh ◽  
James B. Moseley

Cell size control requires mechanisms that link cell growth with Cdk1 activity. In fission yeast, the protein kinase Cdr2 forms cortical nodes that include the Cdk1 inhibitor Wee1 along with the Wee1-inhibitory kinase Cdr1. We investigated how nodes inhibit Wee1 during cell growth. Biochemical fractionation revealed that Cdr2 nodes were megadalton structures enriched for activated Cdr2, which increases in level during interphase growth. In live-cell total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy videos, Cdr2 and Cdr1 remained constant at nodes over time, but Wee1 localized to nodes in short bursts. Recruitment of Wee1 to nodes required Cdr2 kinase activity and the noncatalytic N terminus of Wee1. Bursts of Wee1 localization to nodes increased 20-fold as cells doubled in size throughout G2. Size-dependent signaling was caused in part by the Cdr2 inhibitor Pom1, which suppressed Wee1 node bursts in small cells. Thus, increasing Cdr2 activity during cell growth promotes Wee1 localization to nodes, where inhibitory phosphorylation of Wee1 by Cdr1 and Cdr2 kinases promotes mitotic entry.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corey A. H. Allard ◽  
Hannah E. Opalko ◽  
Ko-Wei Liu ◽  
Uche Medoh ◽  
James B. Moseley

AbstractCell size control requires mechanisms that link cell growth with Cdk1 activity. In fission yeast, the protein kinase Cdr2 forms cortical nodes that include the Cdk1 inhibitor Wee1, along with the Wee1-inhibitory kinase Cdr1. We investigated how nodes inhibit Wee1 during cell growth. Biochemical fractionation revealed that Cdr2 nodes were megadalton structures enriched for activated Cdr2, which increases in level during interphase growth. In live-cell TIRF movies, Cdr2 and Cdr1 remained constant at nodes over time, but Wee1 localized to nodes in short bursts. Recruitment of Wee1 to nodes required Cdr2 kinase activity and the noncatalytic N-terminus of Wee1. Bursts of Wee1 localization to nodes increased 20-fold as cells doubled in size throughout G2. Size-dependent signaling was due in part to the Cdr2 inhibitor Pom1, which suppressed Wee1 node bursts in small cells. Thus, increasing Cdr2 activity during cell growth promotes Wee1 localization to nodes, where inhibitory phosphorylation of Wee1 by Cdr1 and Cdr2 kinases promotes mitotic entry.SummaryCells turn off the mitotic inhibitor Wee1 to enter into mitosis. This study shows how cell growth progressively inhibits fission yeast Wee1 through dynamic bursts of localization to cortical node structures that contain Wee1 inhibitory kinases.


Open Biology ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 110007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nobuyasu Ikai ◽  
Norihiko Nakazawa ◽  
Takeshi Hayashi ◽  
Mitsuhiro Yanagida

Target of rapamycin complexes (TORCs), which are vital for nutrient utilization, contain a catalytic subunit with the phosphatidyl inositol kinase-related kinase (PIKK) motif. TORC1 is required for cell growth, while the functions of TORC2 are less well understood. We show here that the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe TORC2 has a cell cycle role through determining the proper timing of Cdc2 Tyr15 dephosphorylation and the cell size under limited glucose, whereas TORC1 restrains mitosis and opposes securin–separase, which are essential for chromosome segregation. These results were obtained using the previously isolated TORC1 mutant tor2-L2048S in the phosphatidyl inositol kinase (PIK) domain and a new TORC2 mutant tor1-L2045D , which harbours a mutation in the same site. While mutated TORC1 and TORC2 displayed diminished kinase activity and FKBP12/Fkh1-dependent rapamycin sensitivity, their phenotypes were nearly opposite in mitosis. Premature mitosis and the G2–M delay occurred in TORC1 and TORC2 mutants, respectively. Surprisingly, separase/cut1—securin/cut2 mutants were rescued by TORC1/ tor2-L2048S mutation or rapamycin addition or even Fkh1 deletion, whereas these mutants showed synthetic defect with TORC2/ tor1-L2045D . TORC1 and TORC2 coordinate growth, mitosis and cell size control, such as Wee1 and Cdc25 do for the entry into mitosis.


2013 ◽  
Vol 203 (6) ◽  
pp. 875-881 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clifford P. Brangwynne

The coordinated growth of cells and their organelles is a fundamental and poorly understood problem, with implications for processes ranging from embryonic development to oncogenesis. Recent experiments have shed light on the cell size–dependent assembly of membrane-less cytoplasmic and nucleoplasmic structures, including ribonucleoprotein (RNP) granules and other intracellular bodies. Many of these structures behave as condensed liquid-like phases of the cytoplasm/nucleoplasm. The phase transitions that appear to govern their assembly exhibit an intrinsic dependence on cell size, and may explain the size scaling reported for a number of structures. This size scaling could, in turn, play a role in cell growth and size control.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shixuan Liu ◽  
Ceryl Tan ◽  
Chloe Melo-Gavin ◽  
Kevin G. Mark ◽  
Miriam Bracha Ginzberg ◽  
...  

Proliferating animal cells maintain a stable size distribution over generations despite fluctuations in cell growth and division size. This tight control of cell size involves both cell size checkpoints (e.g., delaying cell cycle progression for small cells) and size-dependent compensation in rates of mass accumulation (e.g., slowdown of cellular growth in large cells). We previously identified that the mammalian cell size checkpoint is mediated by a selective activation of the p38 MAPK pathway in small cells. However, mechanisms underlying the size-dependent compensation of cellular growth remain unknown. In this study, we quantified global rates of protein synthesis and degradation in naturally large and small cells, as well as in conditions that trigger a size-dependent compensation in cellular growth. Rates of protein synthesis increase proportionally with cell size in both perturbed and unperturbed conditions, as well as across cell cycle stages. Additionally, large cells exhibit elevated rates of global protein degradation and increased levels of activated proteasomes. Conditions that trigger a large-size-induced slowdown of cellular growth also promote proteasome-mediated global protein degradation, which initiates only after growth rate compensation occurs. Interestingly, the elevated rates of global protein degradation in large cells were disproportionately higher than the increase in size, suggesting activation of protein degradation pathways. Large cells at the G1/S transition show hyperactivated levels of protein degradation, even higher than similarly sized or larger cells in S or G2, coinciding with the timing of the most stringent size control in animal cells. Together, these findings suggest that large cells maintain cell size homeostasis by activating global protein degradation to induce a compensatory slowdown of growth.


2014 ◽  
Vol 204 (3) ◽  
pp. 359-376 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Zapata ◽  
Noah Dephoure ◽  
Tracy MacDonough ◽  
Yaxin Yu ◽  
Emily J. Parnell ◽  
...  

Cell size checkpoints ensure that passage through G1 and mitosis occurs only when sufficient growth has occurred. The mechanisms by which these checkpoints work are largely unknown. PP2A associated with the Rts1 regulatory subunit (PP2ARts1) is required for cell size control in budding yeast, but the relevant targets are unknown. In this paper, we used quantitative proteome-wide mass spectrometry to identify proteins controlled by PP2ARts1. This revealed that PP2ARts1 controls the two key checkpoint pathways thought to regulate the cell cycle in response to cell growth. To investigate the role of PP2ARts1 in these pathways, we focused on the Ace2 transcription factor, which is thought to delay cell cycle entry by repressing transcription of the G1 cyclin CLN3. Diverse experiments suggest that PP2ARts1 promotes cell cycle entry by inhibiting the repressor functions of Ace2. We hypothesize that control of Ace2 by PP2ARts1 plays a role in mechanisms that link G1 cyclin accumulation to cell growth.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuping Chen ◽  
Bruce Futcher

Abstract Cells divide with appropriate frequency by coupling division to growth—that is, cells divide only when they have grown sufficiently large. This process is poorly understood, but has been studied using cell size mutants. In principle, mutations affecting cell size could affect the mean size (“set-point” mutants), or they could affect the variability of sizes (“homeostasis” mutants). In practice, almost all known size mutants affect set-point, with little effect on size homeostasis. One model for size-dependent division depends on a size-dependent gene expression program: Activators of cell division are over-expressed at larger and larger sizes, while inhibitors are under-expressed. At sufficiently large size, activators overcome inhibitors, and the cell divides. Amounts of activators and inhibitors determine the set-point, but the gene expression program (the rate at which expression changes with cell size) determines the breadth of the size distribution (homeostasis). In this model, set-point mutants identify cell cycle activators and inhibitors, while homeostasis mutants identify regulators that couple expression of activators and inhibitors to size. We consider recent results suggesting that increased cell size causes senescence, and suggest that at very large sizes, an excess of DNA binding proteins leads to size induced senescence.


2004 ◽  
Vol 24 (24) ◽  
pp. 10802-10813 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brandt L. Schneider ◽  
Jian Zhang ◽  
J. Markwardt ◽  
George Tokiwa ◽  
Tom Volpe ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, commitment to cell cycle progression occurs at Start. Progression past Start requires cell growth and protein synthesis, a minimum cell size, and G1-phase cyclins. We examined the relationships among these factors. Rapidly growing cells expressed, and required, dramatically more Cln protein than did slowly growing cells. To clarify the role of cell size, we expressed defined amounts of CLN mRNA in cells of different sizes. When Cln was expressed at nearly physiological levels, a critical threshold of Cln expression was required for cell cycle progression, and this critical threshold varied with both cell size and growth rate: as cells grew larger, they needed less CLN mRNA, but as cells grew faster, they needed more Cln protein. At least in part, large cells had a reduced requirement for CLN mRNA because large cells generated more Cln protein per unit of mRNA than did small cells. When Cln was overexpressed, it was capable of promoting Start rapidly, regardless of cell size or growth rate. In summary, the amount of Cln required for Start depends dramatically on both cell size and growth rate. Large cells generate more Cln1 or Cln2 protein for a given amount of CLN mRNA, suggesting the existence of a novel posttranscriptional size control mechanism.


2006 ◽  
Vol 188 (16) ◽  
pp. 5958-5965 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samer Sakr ◽  
Melilotus Thyssen ◽  
Michel Denis ◽  
Cheng-Cai Zhang

ABSTRACT When grown in the absence of a source of combined nitrogen, the filamentous cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. strain PCC 7120 develops, within 24 h, a differentiated cell type called a heterocyst that is specifically involved in the fixation of N2. Cell division is required for heterocyst development, suggesting that the cell cycle could control this developmental process. In this study, we investigated several key events of the cell cycle, such as cell growth, DNA synthesis, and cell division, and explored their relationships to heterocyst development. The results of analyses by flow cytometry indicated that the DNA content increased as the cell size expanded during cell growth. The DNA content of heterocysts corresponded to the subpopulation of vegetative cells that had a big cell size, presumably those at the late stages of cell growth. Consistent with these results, most proheterocysts exhibited two nucleoids, which were resolved into a single nucleoid in most mature heterocysts. The ring structure of FtsZ, a protein required for the initiation of bacterial cell division, was present predominantly in big cells and rarely in small cells. When cell division was inhibited and consequently cells became elongated, little change in DNA content was found by measurement using flow cytometry, suggesting that inhibition of cell division may block further synthesis of DNA. The overexpression of minC, which encodes an inhibitor of FtsZ polymerization, led to the inhibition of cell division, but cells expanded in spherical form to become giant cells; structures with several cells attached together in the form of a cloverleaf could be seen frequently. These results may indicate that the relative amounts of FtsZ and MinC affect not only cell division but also the placement of the cell division planes and the cell morphology. MinC overexpression blocked heterocyst differentiation, consistent with the requirement of cell division in the control of heterocyst development.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank S. Heldt ◽  
John J. Tyson ◽  
Frederick R. Cross ◽  
Béla Novák

AbstractProliferating cells need to coordinate cell division and growth to maintain size homeostasis. Any systematic deviation from a balance between growth and division results in progressive changes of cell size over subsequent generations. While most eukaryotic cells execute binary division after a mass doubling, the photosynthetic green alga Chlamydomonas can grow more than eight-fold during daytime before undergoing rapid cycles of DNA replication, mitosis and cell division at night, which produce up to 16 daughter cells. Here, we propose a mechanistic model for multiple fission and size control in Chlamydomonas. The model comprises a light-sensitive and size-dependent biochemical toggle switch that acts as a sizer and guards transitions into and exit from a phase of cell-division cycle oscillations. We show that this simple ‘sizer-oscillator’ arrangement reproduces the experimentally observed features of multiple-fission cycles and the response of Chlamydomonas cells to different light-dark regimes. Our model also makes testable predictions about the dynamical properties of the biochemical network that controls these features and about the network’s makeup. Collectively, these results provide a new perspective on the concept of a ‘commitment point’ during the growth of Chlamydomonas cells and hint at an intriguing continuity of cell-size control in different eukaryotic lineages.Graphical abstractG1-sizer and S/M-oscillator can give rise to multiple-fission cycles in ChlamydomonasLight-responsive bistable switch may guard transition between G1 and S/M-cyclesIllumination increases S/M-entry threshold, causing multiple-fission cyclesDark shift lowers S/M-entry threshold, allowing small cells to commit to fewer divisions


eLife ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veneta Gerganova ◽  
Charlotte Floderer ◽  
Anna Archetti ◽  
Laetitia Michon ◽  
Lina Carlini ◽  
...  

Protein concentration gradients pattern developing organisms and single cells. In Schizosaccharomyces pombe rod-shaped cells, Pom1 kinase forms gradients with maxima at cell poles. Pom1 controls the timing of mitotic entry by inhibiting Cdr2, which forms stable membrane-associated nodes at mid-cell. Pom1 gradients rely on membrane association regulated by a phosphorylation-dephosphorylation cycle and lateral diffusion modulated by clustering. Using quantitative PALM imaging, we find individual Pom1 molecules bind the membrane too transiently to diffuse from pole to mid-cell. Instead, we propose they exchange within longer lived clusters forming the functional gradient unit. An allelic series blocking auto-phosphorylation shows that multi-phosphorylation shapes and buffers the gradient to control mid-cell levels, which represent the critical Cdr2-regulating pool. TIRF imaging of this cortical pool demonstrates more Pom1 overlaps with Cdr2 in short than long cells, consistent with Pom1 inhibition of Cdr2 decreasing with cell growth. Thus, the gradients modulate Pom1 mid-cell levels according to cell size.


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