Overexpression of yeast homologs of the mammalian checkpoint gene RCC1 suppresses the class of alpha-tubulin mutations that arrest with excess microtubules.

Genetics ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 137 (2) ◽  
pp. 381-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
D Kirkpatrick ◽  
F Solomon

Abstract Microtubules in eukaryotic cells participate in a variety of nuclear and cytoplasmic structures, reflecting functional requirements and cell cycle position. We are studying the cellular regulation of microtubule assembly and organization in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We screened for genes that when overexpressed suppress the growth phenotype of conditional mutants in alpha-tubulin that arrest with excess microtubules at the nonpermissive temperature (class 2 mutations). Here we describe one such suppressing element, called ATS1 (for Alpha Tubulin Suppressor). Overexpression of this gene rescues both the growth and microtubule phenotypes of all class 2 mutations, but not the cold-sensitive mutations that arrest with no microtubules (class 1 mutations). Deletion of ATS1 confers a modest slow growth phenotype which is slightly enhanced in strains containing both a deletion of ATS1 and a class 2 tub 1 mutation. The predicted ATS1 protein contains 333 amino acids and has considerable structural homology to the products of both the mammalian mitotic control gene RCC1 and the S. cerevisiae gene SRM1/PRP20. Overexpression of SRM1/PRP20 also suppresses class 2 mutants. The results suggest that this family of genes may participate in regulatory interactions between microtubules and the cell cycle.

1999 ◽  
Vol 112 (12) ◽  
pp. 1979-1988 ◽  
Author(s):  
E.L. Grishchuk ◽  
J.R. McIntosh

The proper functioning of microtubules depends crucially on the availability of polymerizable alpha/beta tubulin dimers. Their production occurs concomitant with the folding of the tubulin polypeptides and is accomplished in part by proteins known as Cofactors A through E. In the fission yeast, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, this tubulin folding pathway is essential. We have taken advantage of the excellent cytology available in S. pombe to examine the phenotypic consequences of a deletion of sto1(+), a gene that encodes a protein similar to Cofactor E, which is required for the folding of alpha-tubulin. The interphase microtubule cytoskeleton in sto1-delta cells is severely disrupted, and as cells enter mitosis their spindles fail to form. After a transient arrest with condensed chromosomes, the cells exit mitosis and resume DNA synthesis, whereupon they septate abnormally and die. Overexpression of Spo1p is toxic to cells carrying a cold-sensitive allele of the alpha- but not the beta-tubulin gene, consistent with the suggestion that this protein plays a role like that of Cofactor E. Unlike its presumptive partner Cofactor D (Alp1p), however, Sto1p does not localize to microtubules but is found throughout the cell. Overexpression of Sto1p has no toxic effects in wild-type cells, suggesting that it is unable to disrupt alpha/beta tubulin dimers in vivo.


Genetics ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 120 (3) ◽  
pp. 681-695
Author(s):  
P J Schatz ◽  
F Solomon ◽  
D Botstein

Abstract Microtubules in yeast are functional components of the mitotic and meiotic spindles and are essential for nuclear movement during cell division and mating. We have isolated 70 conditional-lethal mutations in the TUB1 alpha-tubulin gene of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae using a plasmid replacement technique. Of the 70 mutations isolated, 67 resulted in cold-sensitivity, one resulted in temperature-sensitivity, and two resulted in both. Fine-structure mapping revealed that the mutations were located throughout the TUB1 gene. We characterized the phenotypes caused by 38 of the mutations after shifts of mutants to the nonpermissive temperature. Populations of temperature-shifted mutant cells contained an excess of large-budded cells with undivided nuclei, consistent with the previously determined role of microtubules in yeast mitosis. Several of the mutants arrested growth with a sufficiently uniform morphology to indicate that TUB1 has at least one specific role in the progression of the yeast cell cycle. A number of the mutants had gross defects in microtubule assembly at the restrictive temperature, some with no microtubules and some with excess microtubules. Other mutants contained disorganized microtubules and nuclei. There were no obvious correlations between these phenotypes and the map positions of the mutations. Greater than 90% of the mutants examined were hypersensitive to the antimicrotubule drug benomyl. Mutations that suppressed the cold-sensitive phenotypes of two of the TUB1 alleles occurred in TUB2, the single structural gene specifying beta-tubulin.


1998 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 2349-2360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leticia R. Vega ◽  
James Fleming ◽  
Frank Solomon

Many effectors of microtubule assembly in vitro enhance the polymerization of subunits. However, several Saccharomyces cerevisiae genes that affect cellular microtubule-dependent processes appear to act at other steps in assembly and to affect polymerization only indirectly. Here we use a mutant α-tubulin to probe cellular regulation of microtubule assembly.tub1-724 mutant cells arrest at low temperature with no assembled microtubules. The results of several assays reported here demonstrate that the heterodimer formed between Tub1-724p and β-tubulin is less stable than wild-type heterodimer. The unstable heterodimer explains several conditional phenotypes conferred by the mutation. These include the lethality of tub1-724haploid cells when the β-tubulin–binding protein Rbl2p is either overexpressed or absent. It also explains why theTUB1/tub1-724 heterozygotes are cold sensitive for growth and why overexpression of Rbl2p rescues that conditional lethality. Both haploid and heterozygous tub1-724 cells are inviable when another microtubule effector, PAC2, is overexpressed. These effects are explained by the ability of Pac2p to bind α-tubulin, a complex we demonstrate directly. The results suggest that tubulin-binding proteins can participate in equilibria between the heterodimer and its components.


1999 ◽  
Vol 5 (S2) ◽  
pp. 1286-1287
Author(s):  
Heide Schatten ◽  
Christopher N. Hueser ◽  
Amitabha Chakrabarti

The formation of abnormal mitosis associated with cancer has been intriguing for many decades. While microtubules had been the focus of previous studies, recent research has focused on centrosomes, microtubule organizing centers which organize the mitotic apparatus during cell division. During normal mitosis centrosomes form two poles but in cancer, centrosomes can form three, four, or more poles, and organize tripolar, quadripolar, and multipolar mitoses, respectively. This has severe consequences for genomic stability because chromosomes are separated unequally to three, four, or more poles. This can result in aneuploidy and gene amplifications with multiple defects in cellular regulation. It can result in malignancy that is accompanied by cell cycle imbalances and abnormal cell proliferation. While radiation and chemical agents are known to damage DNA and can lead to cell cycle abnormalities, the damage of centrosome structure leading to abnormal mitosis deserves also consideration.


Genetics ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 140 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Parket ◽  
O Inbar ◽  
M Kupiec

Abstract The Ty retrotransposons are the main family of dispersed repeated sequences in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. These elements are flanked by a pair of long terminal direct repeats (LTRs). Previous experiments have shown that Ty elements recombine at low frequencies, despite the fact that they are present in 30 copies per genome. This frequency is not highly increased by treatments that cause DNA damage, such as UV irradiation. In this study, we show that it is possible to increase the recombination level of a genetically marked Ty by creating a double-strand break in it. This break is repaired by two competing mechanisms: one of them leaves a single LTR in place of the Ty, and the other is a gene conversion event in which the marked Ty is replaced by an ectopically located one. In a strain in which the marked Ty has only one LTR, the double-strand break is repaired by conversion. We have also measured the efficiency of repair and monitored the progression of the cells through the cell-cycle. We found that in the presence of a double-strand break in the marked Ty, a proportion of the cells is unable to resume growth.


2007 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 117693510700300 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.P. Ingalls ◽  
B.P. Duncker ◽  
D.R. Kim ◽  
B.J. McConkey

Proteins involved in the regulation of the cell cycle are highly conserved across all eukaryotes, and so a relatively simple eukaryote such as yeast can provide insight into a variety of cell cycle perturbations including those that occur in human cancer. To date, the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has provided the largest amount of experimental and modeling data on the progression of the cell cycle, making it a logical choice for in-depth studies of this process. Moreover, the advent of methods for collection of high-throughput genome, transcriptome, and proteome data has provided a means to collect and precisely quantify simultaneous cell cycle gene transcript and protein levels, permitting modeling of the cell cycle on the systems level. With the appropriate mathematical framework and sufficient and accurate data on cell cycle components, it should be possible to create a model of the cell cycle that not only effectively describes its operation, but can also predict responses to perturbations such as variation in protein levels and responses to external stimuli including targeted inhibition by drugs. In this review, we summarize existing data on the yeast cell cycle, proteomics technologies for quantifying cell cycle proteins, and the mathematical frameworks that can integrate this data into representative and effective models. Systems level modeling of the cell cycle will require the integration of high-quality data with the appropriate mathematical framework, which can currently be attained through the combination of dynamic modeling based on proteomics data and using yeast as a model organism.


2003 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 1750-1763 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hilary A. Kemp ◽  
George F. Sprague,

ABSTRACT In budding yeast, diffusible mating pheromones initiate a signaling pathway that culminates in several responses, including cell cycle arrest. Only a handful of genes required for the interface between pheromone response and the cell cycle have been identified, among them FAR1 and FAR3; of these, only FAR1 has been extensively characterized. In an effort to learn about the mechanism by which Far3 acts, we used the two-hybrid method to identify interacting proteins. We identified five previously uncharacterized open reading frames, dubbed FAR7, FAR8, FAR9, FAR10, and FAR11, that cause a far3-like pheromone arrest defect when disrupted. Using two-hybrid and coimmunoprecipitation analysis, we found that all six Far proteins interact with each other. Moreover, velocity sedimentation experiments suggest that Far3 and Far7 to Far11 form a complex. The phenotype of a sextuple far3far7-far11 mutant is no more severe than any single mutant. Thus, FAR3 and FAR7 to FAR11 all participate in the same pathway leading to G1 arrest. These mutants initially arrest in response to pheromone but resume budding after 10 h. Under these conditions, wild-type cells fail to resume budding even after several days whereas far1 mutant cells resume budding within 1 h. We conclude that the FAR3-dependent arrest pathway is functionally distinct from that which employs FAR1.


2013 ◽  
Vol 31 (9) ◽  
pp. 1231-1238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsey N. Micel ◽  
John J. Tentler ◽  
Peter G. Smith ◽  
Gail S. Eckhardt

The ubiquitin proteasome system (UPS) regulates the ubiquitination, and thus degradation and turnover, of many proteins vital to cellular regulation and function. The UPS comprises a sequential series of enzymatic processes using four key enzyme families: E1 (ubiquitin-activating enzymes), E2 (ubiquitin-carrier proteins), E3 (ubiquitin-protein ligases), and E4 (ubiquitin chain assembly factors). Because the UPS is a crucial regulator of the cell cycle, and abnormal cell-cycle control can lead to oncogenesis, aberrancies within the UPS pathway can result in a malignant cellular phenotype and thus has become an attractive target for novel anticancer agents. This article will provide an overall review of the mechanics of the UPS, describe aberrancies leading to cancer, and give an overview of current drug therapies selectively targeting the UPS.


1997 ◽  
Vol 110 (6) ◽  
pp. 753-763 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.S. Detweiler ◽  
J.J. Li

CDC6 is essential for the initiation of DNA replication in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Here we examine the timing of Cdc6p expression and function during the cell cycle. Cdc6p is expressed primarily between mitosis and Start. This pattern of expression is due in part to posttranscriptional controls, since it is maintained when CDC6 is driven by a constitutively induced promoter. Transcriptional repression of CDC6 or exposure of cdc6-1(ts) cells to the restrictive temperature at mitosis blocks subsequent S phase, demonstrating that the activity of newly synthesized Cdc6p is required each cell cycle for DNA replication. In contrast, similar perturbations imposed on cells arrested in G(1) before Start have moderate or no effects on DNA replication. This suggests that, between mitosis and Start, Cdc6p functions in an early step of initiation, effectively making cells competent for replication. Prolonged exposure of cdc6-1(ts) cells to the restrictive temperature at the pre-Start arrest eventually does cripple S phase, indicating that Cdc6p also functions to maintain this initiation competence during G(1). The requirement for Cdc6p to establish and maintain initiation competence tightly correlates with the requirement for Cdc6p to establish and maintain the pre-replicative complex at a replication origin, strongly suggesting that the pre-replicative complex is an important intermediate for the initiation of DNA replication. Confining assembly of the complex to G(1) by restricting expression of Cdc6p to this period may be one way of ensuring precisely one round of replication per cell cycle.


1987 ◽  
Vol 7 (10) ◽  
pp. 3799-3805
Author(s):  
P J Schatz ◽  
G E Georges ◽  
F Solomon ◽  
D Botstein

Microtubules in yeasts are essential components of the mitotic and meiotic spindle and are necessary for nuclear movement during cell division and mating. The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has two alpha-tubulin genes, TUB1 and TUB3, either of which alone is sufficient for these processes when present in a high enough copy number. Comparisons of sequences from several species reveals the presence of a variable region near the amino terminus of alpha-tubulin proteins. We perturbed the structure of this region in TUB3 by inserting into it 3, 9, or 17 amino acids and tested the ability of these altered proteins to function as the only alpha-tubulin protein in yeast cells. We found that each of these altered proteins was sufficient on its own for mitotic growth, mating, and methods of yeast. We conclude that this region can tolerate considerable variation without losing any of the highly conserved functions of alpha-tubulin. Our results suggest that variability in this region occurs because it can be tolerated, not because it specifies an important function for the protein.


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