Evidence for cell cycle-specific, spindle pole body-mediated, nuclear positioning in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe

Specific changes in spatial order occur during cell cycle progression in fission yeast. Growth of the rod-shaped cells is highly regulated and undergoes a cell cycle and size-regulated switch from monopolar to bipolar tip extension. During both phases of growth, the interphase nucleus is maintained in a central location. Following the separation of the genome to the cell tips in mitosis, the two nuclei migrate back towards the cell equator before stopping in two new positions that will become the middle of the two new cells. Here we use simultaneous labeling of microtubules, chromatin and spindle pole bodies in wild-type and cdc mutants, to show that nuclear positioning is achieved by regulation of spindle pole body-mediated nuclear migration. We show that the number and location of nuclear positioning signals is regulated in a cell cycle-specific manner and that spindle pole body-mediated forces are likely to be responsible for maintaining correct nuclear position once the nuclei have reached the appropriate position in the cell. Accentuating the movement of the nuclei back towards the cell equator after mitosis by artificially increasing cell length shows that the spindle pole body leads the nucleus during this migration. When multiple spindle pole bodies are associated with the same or different nuclei they all go to the same point indicating that the different spindle pole bodies are responding to the same positional cue. In a septation-defective mutant cell, which contains four nuclei, the spindle pole bodies on the four different nuclei initially group as two pairs in regions that would become the middle of the new cells, were the cell able to divide. In the subsequent interphase, the nuclei aggregate as a group of four in the centre of the cell. The presence of two or three clusters of spindle pole bodies in larger cells with eight nuclei suggests that the mechanisms specifying the normally central location for multiple nuclei may be unable to operate properly as the cells get larger. Perturbation of microtubules with the microtubule poison thiabendazole prevents the spindle pole body clustering in septation mutants, demonstrating that nuclear positioning requires a functional microtubule cytoskeleton.