The transition of cells of the fission yeast beta-tubulin mutant nda3-311 as seen by freeze-substitution electron microscopy. Requirement of functional tubulin for spindle pole body duplication

1990 ◽  
Vol 96 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-282
Author(s):  
T. Kanbe ◽  
Y. Hiraoka ◽  
K. Tanaka ◽  
M. Yanagida

A previous fluorescence light-microscopic study showed that the fission yeast cold-sensitive beta-tubulin mutant nda3-311 was arrested with rod-like condensed chromosomes in a mitotic state at the restrictive temperature. Upon transfer to the permissive temperature, a spindle was formed and the nucleus was divided. In the present study, we employed freeze-substitution electron microscopy to examine the ultrastructure of arrested and released nda3-311 cells. In arrested cells, a single, displaced nucleus was seen with a single spindle pole body. Therefore, spindle pole body duplication seemed to require functional beta-tubulin. The nuclear membrane was highly deformed with a leaf-like profile in cross-section, possibly due to an interaction with the rod-like, condensed chromosomes. Upon transfer to the permissive temperature, the spindle pole duplicated and the daughter spindle pole bodies rapidly migrated to the opposite ends of the nucleus, accompanied by the formation of the mitotic spindle. Elongation of the nuclear envelope occurred with concomitant spindle extension, as in a wild-type mitosis. The deformed nuclear membrane became smooth and described a convex curve. The numerous vacuoles that are seen in the arrested cells decreased in number and increased in size. Septation was completed, leaving the two divided nuclei in one half of the cell. Hexagonally arranged microtubules, apparently forming the mitotic spindle, were observed in a cross-section of a cell after return to the permissive conditions.

1994 ◽  
Vol 72 (10) ◽  
pp. 1412-1423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerry O'donnell

Mitosis in the wheat pathogen Tilletia caries (Basidiomycota, Tilletiales) was investigated by electron microscopy of serially sectioned, fast-frozen, freeze-substituted mitotic cells called ballistospores. A duplicated spindle pole body consisting of two identical, three-layered globular elements connected by a middle piece was attached to the extranuclear face of each nucleus at interphase. During mitosis, astral and spindle microtubules radiated from the globular elements that form the poles of an intranuclear spindle. At metaphase, chromosomes were interspersed with the nonkinetochore microtubules, and they were spread along the central two-thirds of the spindle. Each chromatid was attached to a spindle pole by a single, continuous, kinetochore microtubule. Postmitotic replication of the spindle pole body occurred during late telophase to interphase. Results from this study are presented in the form of a model of the mitotic spindle pole body cycle in Tilletia, and this model is compared with the one previously reported for Tilletia and other basidiomycetes. Key words: electron microscopy, freeze substitution, mitosis, spindle pole body, Tilletia.


Genetics ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 162 (2) ◽  
pp. 567-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan McBratney ◽  
Mark Winey

Abstract Mutation of either the yeast MPS2 or the NDC1 gene leads to identical spindle pole body (SPB) duplication defects: The newly formed SPB is improperly inserted into the nuclear envelope (NE), preventing the cell from forming a bipolar mitotic spindle. We have previously shown that both MPS2 and NDC1 encode integral membrane proteins localized at the SPB. Here we show that CUE1, previously known to have a role in coupling ubiquitin conjugation to ER degradation, is an unusual dosage suppressor of mutations in MPS2 and NDC1. Cue1p has been shown to recruit the soluble ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme, Ubc7p, to the cytoplasmic face of the ER membrane where it can ubiquitinate its substrates and target them for degradation by the proteasome. Both mps2-1 and ndc1-1 are also suppressed by disruption of UBC7 or its partner, UBC6. The Mps2-1p mutant protein level is markedly reduced compared to wild-type Mps2p, and deletion of CUE1 restores the level of Mps2-1p to nearly wild-type levels. Our data indicate that Mps2p may be targeted for degradation by the ER quality control pathway.


1992 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 629-638 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerry O'Donnell

Meiosis in the smut fungi Ustilago maydis and Ustilago avenae (Basidiomycota, Ustilaginales) was studied by electron microscopy of serial-sectioned freeze substituted basidia. At prophase I, a spindle pole body composed of two globular elements connected by a middle piece was attached to the extranuclear surface of each nucleus. Astral and spindle microtubules were initiated at each globular element at late prophase I to prometaphase I. During spindle initiation, the middle piece disappeared and interdigitating half-spindles entered the nucleoplasm, which was surrounded by discontinuous nuclear envelope together with perinuclear endoplasmic reticulum. Kinetochore pairs at metaphase I were analyzed to obtain a karyotype for each species. The meiotic spindle pole body replicational cycle is described. Key words: electron microscopy, freeze-substitution, meiosis, Ustilago, spindle pole body.


Nucleus ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 352-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greetchen Diaz-Muñoz ◽  
Terri A Harchar ◽  
Tsung-Po Lai ◽  
Kuo-Fang Shen ◽  
Anita K Hopper

2011 ◽  
Vol 30 (16) ◽  
pp. 3337-3352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Kupke ◽  
Leontina Di Cecco ◽  
Hans-Michael Müller ◽  
Annett Neuner ◽  
Frank Adolf ◽  
...  

2004 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. 5219-5230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Satoru Uzawa ◽  
Fei Li ◽  
Ye Jin ◽  
Kent L. McDonald ◽  
Michael B. Braunfeld ◽  
...  

The regulation and timing of spindle pole body (SPB) duplication and maturation in fission yeast was examined by transmission electron microscopy. When cells are arrested at G1 by nitrogen starvation, the SPB is unduplicated. On release from G1, the SPBs were duplicated after 1–2 h. In cells arrested at S by hydroxyurea, SPBs are duplicated but not mature. In G1 arrest/release experiments with cdc2.33 cells at the restrictive temperature, SPBs remained single, whereas in cells at the permissive temperature, SPBs were duplicated. In cdc10 mutant cells, the SPBs seem not only to be duplicated but also to undergo partial maturation, including invagination of the nuclear envelope underneath the SPB. There may be an S-phase–specific inhibitor of SPB maturation whose expression is under control of cdc10+. This model was examined by induction of overreplication of the genome by overexpression of rum1p or cdc18p. In cdc18p-overexpressing cells, the SPBs are duplicated but not mature, suggesting that cdc18p is one component of this feedback mechanism. In contrast, cells overexpressing rum1p have large, deformed SPBs accompanied by other features of maturation and duplication. We propose a feedback mechanism for maturation of the SPB that is coupled with exit from S to trigger morphological changes.


1985 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
James A. Hoffmann ◽  
Blair J. Goates

The interphase nucleus in secondary sporidia of Tilletia foetida consists of mostly diffuse chromatin, one or two nucleoli, and an area of heterochromatin located opposite an electron-dense, extranuclear spindle pole body (SPB). The interphase SPB is an oval- to bar-shaped, double-structured disc that has a crystallinelike substructure. During nuclear migration into nascent sporidia, SPBs and nucleoli are randomly oriented. At the onset of division, chromatin begins to condense and the SPB becomes located on a nuclear protuberance. Cytoplasmic microtubules terminate at the SPBs and multivesicular bodies surround the SPBs from the early stages of SPB division to early postdivision. SPB discs become spheroid and each develops a medial, dense layer. Then, a basal, dense layer develops and elongates as the SPBs separate and become positioned on opposite sides of the nuclear protuberance. The nuclear membrane opens opposite the SPB during SPB division. The nucleolus is extruded into a nuclear bleb and degenerates. SPBs migrate to opposing sides of the nucleus and become diffuse as a microtubular spindle develops between them. Some spindle microtubules terminate at dense chromatin patches that are contiguous with the major mass of chromatin surrounding the spindle. During late division stages, spindle microtubules often appear to be closely juxtaposed. Except for polar openings adjacent to the SPBs, the nuclear membrane is entire until late division when it degenerates in the midregion of the nucleus. During early postdivision, the SPB condenses into a small, dense sphere as the chromatin and heterochromatin opposite the SPB become diffuse. The SPB then elongates into a dense bar and SPB material increases, except at the midportion, reforming the double structure of interphase.


1976 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 507-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. H. Poon ◽  
A. W. Day

In unbudded cells of the anther smut fungus Ustilago violacea there is a dome-shaped spindle-pole body (SPB) consisting of a core 0.1 μm in diameter surrounded by a ribosome-free region 0.3–0.4 μm in diameter lying in a pocket of the nuclear membrane. After budding the nucleus moves towards the bud and begins to rotate rapidly. At about this stage the SPB divides into two parallel bars each about 0.1–0.15 μm in diameter and 0.3 μm long, separated by a distance of about 0.3 μm. Microtubules associated with the nuclear membrane but not with the SPB are present at the time of nuclear rotation. These microtubules disappear when rotation stops. Microtubules attached to the SPB are found during migration of the chromatinic portion of the nucleus into the bud cell. These microtubules disappear when migration stops and the nuclear membrane begins to break down. The twin SPB bars appear to move into the nucleus through a break in the membrane and begin to move apart forming a spindle about 1 μm long. Chromosomal microtubules (one per kinetochore) were found in several serial sections, and in addition there appeared to be several continuous microtubules present. The separation of the two chromatinic masses appeared to result from elongation of the continuous microtubules to about 3 μm long. Cytoplasmic microtubules and spindle microtubules were both found attached to the SPB as it elongated and one nucleus returned to the mother cell.The paper concludes with a discussion of the SPB as a multifunctional control center affecting nuclear migration, spindle formation, membrane breakdown and synthesis, karyogamy, conjugation, budding, chromosomal movement, replication, and disjunction.


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