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Vol. 15, Issue 12, 5219-5230, December 2004
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* Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720;
Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143
Submitted March 25, 2004;
Revised September 2, 2004;
Accepted September 7, 2004
Monitoring Editor: Joseph Gall
| ABSTRACT |
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| INTRODUCTION |
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The reported cycle of SPB duplication and maturation in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe differs from that in budding yeast and other organisms. The fission yeast SPB, a laminar body, spends most of interphase in the cytoplasm adjacent to the nuclear envelope. After the formation of a half bridge a second laminar body forms adjacent to the first. As the SPB matures, osmophilic material accumulates in a pocket in the nuclear envelope that forms as the nuclear envelope invaginates. Subsequently, as the cell enters mitosis the two laminar bodies separate as the mitotic spindle forms, giving rise to a bipolar spindle (Ding et al., 1997
; Tanaka et al., 2000
). The timing of SPB duplication in the fission yeast cell cycle is controversial. Although the latest reports place duplication, maturation, and separation at late G2 (Ding et al., 1997
), earlier reports suggest that duplication occurs upon entry into mitosis (McCully and Robinow, 1971
) or anaphase (Kanbe et al., 1990
) or that it is independent of the DNA replication cycle (King et al., 1982
).
We wanted to reexamine the timing of SPB duplication in fission yeast because it is the only organism that is reported to initiate centrosome duplication at a point in the cell cycle other than G1/S. Although we have shown in permeabilized cells that the SPB becomes competent to nucleate microtubules at G2/M (Masuda et al., 1992
), it is possible that other changes in SPB structure and function, including SPB duplication occur earlier in the cell cycle. For example, two fission yeast SPB components, alp4p and alp6p, which are homologous to the
-tubulin binding proteins, Sc. Spc97/h.GCP2 and Sc. Spc98/h.GCP3, respectively, have an essential role that is required earlier in the cell cycle than M, i.e., during G1 (Vardy and Toda, 2000
). Their essential function may be associated with a step in the duplication of the SPB. Different steps in duplication and maturation of the Drosophila centrosome happen at different stages in the cell cycle (Vidwans et al., 1999
). A similar cell cycle-dependent separation of SPB duplication and maturation may occur during the fission yeast cell cycle.
To accurately place the events of fission yeast duplication and maturation in the cell cycle, we have monitored changes in SPB morphology in high-pressure fast frozen, freeze-substituted cells followed either by serial thin section analysis or tomography. Various cell cycle arrest and release techniques such as nitrogen starvation/release and hydroyxurea treatment allowed us to determine whether SPB duplication is associated with crossing the G1/S boundary. The large collection of cell cycle arrest mutants gave us further insight into the cell cycle-dependent control of SPB duplication and maturation. We find that duplication of the SPB occurs at the G1/S boundary and that maturation of the SPB occurs later in the cell cycle and requires exit from S.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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Electron Microscopy
The cells were high-pressure frozen in a Bal-tec high-pressure freezer as described previously (Ding et al., 1997
). The frozen cells were substituted in acetone with 2% osmium oxide and 0.1% uranyl acetate for 3 d at 90°C and then warmed to 20°C at 10°C/h. The cells were embedded in Epon 812 resin, sectioned at a thickness of
4050 nm, and poststained in lead citrate and uranyl acetate. The pictures of SPBs were taken with either a JEOL 100CX transmission electron microscope at 80 keV, a JEOL 1200EX at 100 keV, or a Philips TECNAI 12 at 100 keV. For each SPB found, serial sections were followed, including two sections outside the ends of the SPB in both directions. For each section, a low-magnification image for the entire cell (330016,000x) and a close-up image of the SPB (26,00050,000x) were taken. For selected samples, the stage was tilted to obtain images at different angles for a clearer view of the internal structure of the SPB. The SPBs were scored as single or duplicated judging from their shape. All of the SPBs without complete lamellae were scored as single, including all the putative duplication intermediates. With only a few exceptions, >10 complete serial section images of SPBs were taken for each time point or condition in each experiment. The total number of electron microscope (EM) negatives used in this study is >1800.
EM Tomography
EM tomographic reconstruction was performed as described previously (Braunfeld et al., 1994
). Briefly, after fixation, processing, and embedding in Epon 812, cells were sectioned to a thickness of
0.4 µm and placed on a 50 x 200 mesh grid coated with Formvar. The sections were scanned for SPBs on either Philips TECNAI 12 electron microscope at 100 keV or a Philips EM430 at 300 keV. The position of SPBs was recorded for later reference. The scanned grids were then treated with poly-L-lysine followed by coating with 15-nm gold beads. The poly-L-lysine treatment and gold bead coating were repeated until sufficient density of gold beads was obtained around the SPB and then the grids were carbon coated. The SPBs were preexposed for 1520 min to minimize shrinkage during tilting. The tilt data sets were taken on a Philips CM430 automated data correction system at 300 keV. The system is fully automated with a Philips C400 interface and a SGI OCTANE workstation. Data were collected on a Gatan 676 cooled slow-scan charge-coupled device camera with 2x binning (512 x 512 pixels) at a magnification of 21,200x (1.68 nm/pixel) with a tilting angle ranging from 70 to +70° at 1.25° intervals except for a few samples for which a high tilting angle >60° was not available in one tilting direction. Each data set was processed for reconstruction by using alignment of gold beads on the surface of the section, mass normalization, and calculation of the tomographic alternating projection iterative reconstruction in Priism software. The reconstructed images were displayed, analyzed, and modeled with Priism or DeltaVision software (Chen et al., 1996
).
Cell Cycle Arrest and Release
For G1 arrest experiments with nitrogen starvation, logarithmic cultures were centrifuged and cells were washed three times in PM-ND. Then, the cells were cultured in PM-ND for 22.5 h followed by addition of glucose to a final concentration of 2% (Horie et al., 1998
). The culture was subsequently incubated for 67.5 h and was subjected to high-pressure freezing. The arrest was monitored with FACscan analysis for DNA content according to the literature (Moreno and Nurse, 1994
; Labib et al., 1995
). For arrest/release experiments, G1 arrested cultures were refed with ammonium chloride and cultured for an hour before high-pressure freezing. For cdc2.33 strain with G1 arrest/release experiment, the G1 arrested culture cdc2.33 strain was split into two halves, and one was shifted up to the nonpermissive temperature (35°C) and the other was kept at the permissive temperature (25°C). Ten minutes later, prewarmed nitrogen source (ammonium chloride, final 1%) was added to both cultures. The fixation of cells was started between 60 and 90 min after the addition of nitrogen source and took 1520 min for one culture condition typically. For hydroxyurea (HU) treatment, the cells were cultured in YES to mid-log phase and then HU was added to 10 mM, and cells were further incubated for 3.5 h followed by high-pressure freezing. The cdc10.v50 strain was cultured in YES to mid-log phase and then shifted up the nonpermissive temperature (35°C) for 3.5 h before fixation. Overexpression of rum1p or cdc18p under the control of the nmt1+ promoter was done according to Moreno and Nurse (1994
) or Nishitani and Nurse (1995
). Cells were cultured in YES to mid-log phase. The cells were washed three times in PM followed by diluting the culture in PM for 30-fold. The cells were then cultured for 17 h before the fixation to allow overexpression of the proteins by depletion of thiamine. Most of the cells in these populations had more than 4C DNA content as monitored by flow cytometry.
Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) analysis of the DNA content of cell populations in cell cycle arrest/release experiments were done according to Moreno et al. (Moreno and Nurse, 1994
; Labib et al., 1995
). The DNA content of cells stained with SYTOX Green (Molecular Probes, Eugene, OR) were analyzed using a Beckman Coulter EPICS XL-MCL flow cytometer at the Flow Cytometry Facility (Cancer Research Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA). To confirm the stage of cell cycle arrest of the various populations of cells analyzed by flow cytometry, we used an in situ chromatin binding assay developed by Kearsey et al. (2000
) as modified by Gomez and Forsburg (2004
), to study the cell cycle-dependent binding of mcm4p to chromatin in individual cells. As described previously, after Zymolyase 20T treatment, cells were washed with low (0.025%) or high (1%) Triton X-100 to determine whether HA-tagged mcm4p was retained in the nucleus bound to chromatin after high-detergent treatment. Cells were examined by indirect immunofluoresence and photographed using the same exposure times.
| RESULTS |
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Because of the contradictory literature and the difficulty in analyzing SPB morphology as it duplicates and matures, a large data set consisting of >120 complete sets of serial sections containing SPBs were obtained and analyzed for this study. When the lamellae were not clearly visible in the sections, the sections were examined with various tilting angles, and images were obtained at the best tilting angle for visualization of the lamellae. We examined complete serial sections of SPBs running from two sections outside of the boundary of the SPB and scored the SPBs as single or duplicated only when the complete sets of sections were recorded on film. Any ambiguous SPBs, including putative duplication intermediates, were scored as duplicated. In addition, three tomographic reconstructions of SPBs at different stages of duplication were made. As shown in Figure 1, the images of an unduplicated (section B) and a duplicated but immature (section D) SPB can seem similar when comparing two single sections, but they can be distinguished from each other in serial section analysis.
The SPB Is Duplicated in Cells Arrested at S Phase by HU
Although Ding et al. (1997
) concluded that the SPB undergoes duplication and maturation at the G2/M boundary, other accounts in the literature (Vardy and Toda, 2000
; Garcia et al., 2001
) and our own observations of SPB morphology in log phase culture (S.U., unpublished data) suggest that SPB duplication was initiated at G1-S phase. To further study the timing of SPB duplication, we examined the morphology of SPBs in cells arrested at various stages of the cell cycle around the G1-to-S phase transition. First, we examined the SPB morphology in cells arrested at S phase by hydroxyurea. HU is an inhibitor of ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) and delays the progression of S phase by depleting the dNTP pool required for efficient DNA synthesis (Kim and Huberman, 2001
). Figure 2, A and B, shows SPBs from wild-type cells treated with HU for 3.5 h at 25°C. All 11 SPBs scored were duplicated according to our criteria. It is striking that the most of the SPBs found in HU-treated cells are uniform in shape and length as shown in Figure 2. SPBs contained a pair of lamellar bodies; one was smaller and at an angle relative to the nuclear envelope, and the other larger and slightly more extended. They are interconnected by a pyramid-shaped bridge that is on top of a continuous nuclear envelope. The nuclear envelope beneath the SPB was straight and closely oppressed to the SPB. Electron-dense material was found in the nucleus adjacent to the nuclear envelope beneath the SPB at the site where the centromere cluster is located (Tanaka and Kanbe, 1986
; Nishimoto et al., 1992
; Uzawa and Yanagida, 1992
; Funabiki et al., 1993
; Kniola et al., 2001
). Because all SPB scored had a duplicated SPB, we conclude that the SPB duplication is completed before or during S phase. Moreover, because 100% of the cells have duplicated SPBs, it is not possible that SPB duplication in HU-arrested cells is actually a later cell cycle event unaffected by HU treatment because the cell population is variable in the length of time spent arrested in S. If the HU-treated cells had progressed further in the cell cycle with respect to SPB duplication, then only a fraction of the cells would have had duplicated SPBs.
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As shown by flow cytometry (Figure 2C), cells fixed after 3.5 h in HU for electron microscopy were arrested in early S phase with unreplicated DNA. At the beginning of S phase, the mcm4p/mcm6p complex is bound to chromatin and is then displaced from chromatin as DNA replication occurs and becomes soluble in the nucleus (Kearsey et al., 2000
). As shown in Figure 2D by using an in situ binding assay for chromatin bound mcm4p, HA-tagged mcm4p is retained in the nucleus after high-detergent treatment in the HU-treated cells. This result, consistent with that shown previously by Kearsey et al. (2000
), confirms that SPB duplication can occur in cells blocked in DNA replication during early S phase. By way of contrast in the wild-type, non-HUtreated population where most cells are in G2, the only cells observed that have retained mcm4p after detergent treatment are binucleate cells undergoing septation that are at the G1/S boundary.
The SPB Is Not Duplicated in Cells Arrested at G1 Phase by Nitrogen Starvation
To further study the timing of SPB duplication, we examined the morphology of SPBs in cells arrested at various stages of the cell cycle around the G1/S boundary. G1 arrest by nitrogen starvation is before cdc2 arrest and clearly is preStart. For an unknown reason, the conventional method for G1 arrest (nitrogen starvation for 16 h or more) yielded very poor quality specimens for EM. An alternative protocol developed by Shimoda (Horie et al., 1998
) yielded cells that had well preserved ultrastructure. By this method, cells in log phase are arrested at G2 by starving with both nitrogen and carbon sources (Figure 3A). On addition of a carbon source, the cells undergo two rapid successive cell divisions and then arrest at G1. Although many cells in this population are multiply septated and daughters have not separated (Figure 3B), only cells lacking a septum were used for EM. Flow cytometry of the arrested population combined together with a septation index suggested that >66% of the cells were arrested in G1 by this nitrogen starvation protocol (Figure 3B). A single laminated structure with two layers and a half bridge (Figure 1, AC) was found in most of the cells examined (81%; 13/16), demonstrating that the SPB is not duplicated in cells arrested at G1. The nuclear membrane running under the SPB seems to be straight and continuous. The nuclear membrane had no indication of early maturation events, such as fenestration or invagination adjacent to the SPB. A bundle of cytoplasmic microtubules running parallel to the longitudinal axis of the cells were found at the cytoplasmic side of SPBs. Four to seven microtubules were usually found within the bundle; a number that matches our live data analysis for cytoplasmic microtubule behavior (Sagolla et al., 2003
). Mitochondria were always associated with the microtubule bundles near the SPB and extended most of the length of the cytoplasmic bundle. This observation is consistent with genetic studies that demonstrate that microtubules are involved in mitochondrial partitioning to daughter cells during cell division (Yaffe et al., 1996
). The three cells that had duplicated SPBs may be the result of an incomplete arrest by nitrogen starvation as suggested by flow cytometry (Figure 3B). This observation clearly demonstrates that the SPB is not duplicated at an early G1 arrest point.
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SPB Duplicates upon Release from Nitrogen Starvation
To determine whether SPBs are duplicated at a stage in the cell cycle that falls between arrest by nitrogen starvation and HU arrest, we investigated the timing of SPB duplication by releasing cells from nitrogen starvation and fixing the cells shortly after release. The method of starvation and release is shown in the flow diagram in Figure 3A (Horie et al., 1998
). One to 1.5 h after the addition of a nitrogen source, when cells are at the onset of S phase or in early S phase, as shown by flow cytometry (Figure 4B), the cells were fixed and the SPB morphology was examined. Where possible, only cells that had no septa were examined. The flow cytometry data suggest that these cells at 25°C have not completed DNA replication. Of the eight cells examined, five cells had duplicated SPBs (63%) in contrast to the 81% that had single SPBs in nitrogen-starved G1-arrested cells (Figure 1, AC). Two of the three cells scored as having unduplicated SPBs contained an unknown structure associated with the half bridge, which may be a duplication intermediate (our unpublished data). None showed any signs of maturation as defined previously. Nor had any of the cells entered mitosis. This result, together with the results of the HU arrest experiment, strongly suggests that the duplication of the SPB occurs at the G1/S boundary instead of at the G2/M boundary.
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The Duplication of SPB Is Dependent on cdc2p Kinase at the G1/S Boundary
To investigate the role of cdc2p kinase during SPB duplication, a nitrogen starvation arrest/release experiment was carried out with a temperature-sensitive allele of cdc2+ gene. Wild-type cdc2p kinase activity is required both for entrance into S and into M. Normally, if a log phase population of cdc2.33 cells were shifted to the nonpermissive temperature, almost all cells arrest at the G2/M boundary because most cells in a log phase population are in G2 (King and Hyams, 1982
). In this experiment, cells were arrested at G1 by nitrogen starvation and then released from arrest by addition of the nitrogen source. The population of nitrogen-starved, G1-arrested cdc2.33 cells was divided into two cultures, and one-half was shifted up to 35°C, the nonpermissive temperature (Figure 4A, diagram). Ten minutes later, the G1 arrest was released by addition of a prewarmed nitrogen source to both cultures. The cells were fixed 11.5 h after the addition of the nitrogen source (Figure 4B, bar), as in the nitrogen arrest/release experiment. At the nonpermissive temperature, 83% (10/12) of cells had a single, unduplicated SPB. In contrast, 13% of the cells (2/16 cells) at the permissive temperature (25°C) had unduplicated SPBs. These results clearly demonstrate that the duplication of the SPB occurs at the G1/S boundary in fission yeast and is downstream of G1/S cdc2p kinase activity. As is shown by the FACS analysis of the cdc2.33 populations of cells (Figure 4B), at 25°C the cells progressed through the cell cycle with kinetics similar to wild-type cells at the same temperature, whereas at 35°C after being released from nitrogen starvation the cdc2.33 cells remain arrested at the G1/S boundary with unreplicated DNA.
The SPB Is Duplicated and Undergoes Early Maturation in cdc10-arrested Cells
To further characterize regulation of SPB duplication timing, we investigated the morphology of SPBs in G1-arrested cells with the cdc10.v50 ts mutation, which arrested at a step in the cell cycle downstream from cdc2p kinase but earlier than HU arrest. cdc10p is a component of (MluI binding factor transcription complex, which regulates the transcription of genes required for S phase, including the large subunit of RNR and cdc18p (Tanaka and Okayama, 2000
). cdc10p activity is regulated through phosphorylation and is a down-stream target of cdc2p/G1 cyclin complex. The execution point of the cdc10+ gene is commonly used to define Start in the fission yeast cell cycle (Nurse and Bissett, 1981
)
As shown by flow cytometry, cdc10 cells after 3 h at the nonpermissive temperature are arrested with a 1C DNA content (Figure 5B). mcm4 p is not retained in the nucleus in permeabilized cells at the nonpermissive temperature (Figure 2D), presumably because it cannot be loaded onto chromosomes in the absence of cdc18p expression (Kearsey et al., 2000
). Ogawa et al. (1999
) have previously demonstrated that the mcm4p/mcm6p complex is not bound to chromatin in the absence of cdc10p. Cells were fixed for EM after 3.5 h at the nonpermissive temperature, at a time when all cells remain arrested at the G1/S boundary with 1C DNA content. The SPBs were found to be duplicated in cdc10-arrested cells as shown in Figure 1, DF and Figure 5, AL, and the Supplemental Movie. Two laminated bodies were found in 97% (26/27 cells) of the SPBs examined, demonstrating that they have already undergone duplication. This result shows that SPB duplication has happened before the initiation of S phase. The SPB scored as "single" in the cdc10-arrested culture had an appendage at the tip of half bridge, indicating that it is actually a duplication intermediate. Although to be consistent we scored this SPB as single, this unusual morphology suggests that none of the SPBs in cdc10-arrested cells possess a single SPB.
SPB morphology was heterogeneous in cdc10-arrested cells. We conducted a reconstruction of three-dimensional (3D) structure of SPBs in several cells by using EM tomography (Figure 5, AL, and Supplemental Figure) (Braunfeld et al., 1994
). We found duplicated SPBs with an unmodified nuclear membrane underneath them (Figure 1, DF) duplicated SPBs with a small invagination in the nuclear membrane underneath the bridge (our unpublished data) or duplicated SPBs with a large invagination of the nuclear membrane and associated dark staining material underneath the SPB (Figure 5, AL, and Supplemental Movie). The SPB shown in Figure 5 bears a close resemblance to the SPB morphology described by Ding et al. (1997
) as a premitotic SPB. Our results demonstrate that after cdc10 arrest, duplication and subsequent early maturation of the SPB could be initiated without exiting from G1 or entering S phase. However, late-stage maturation, as defined by separation of the SPBs and nucleation of microtubules on the nucleoplasmic face of the SPB for the assembly of the mitotic spindle, was not observed.
Overexpression of cdc18p Is Sufficient to Block the Early Maturation
Cdc10p is a subunit of the transcription factor required for the progression through G1-S boundary. Because the block of early maturation is cdc10p dependent, it is natural to make the assumption that one of the cdc10+-regulated genes is responsible for the blockage of the early maturation. We, by accident, found that the overexpression of cdc18p, a protein whose expression is regulated by cdc10+, by itself can induce the blockage of early maturation. Overexpression (OE) of cdc18p is known to induce repeated initiations of DNA replication at various sites in the genome independent of cell cycle phase. These cells initiate DNA replication without going through a corresponding G1, G2, or M phase (Figure 6A, diagram) (Moreno and Nurse, 1994
; Nishitani and Nurse, 1995
). Cdc18p is directly involved in initiation of DNA replication (Nishitani and Nurse, 1995
). It is a down-stream target of the res1p-cdc10p transcription activator (complex) and when overexpressed, there is repeated initiation of DNA replication bypassing a requirement for cdc10+ (Martín-Castellanos et al., 2000
).
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We investigated SPB morphology in cells overexpressing cdc18p. The DNA content of these cells at the time of fixation for EM was roughly equivalent to 4C, and their morphology was abnormally long because they continued to grow without undergoing mitosis and cytokinesis (Figure 6B). As shown in Figure 7, cells overexpressing cdc18p have duplicated SPBs, but the SPBs have not undergone any maturation except for a minor fraction of the cells (2 of the 20 cells examined; out unpublished data). As in the case of cells treated with HU, SPB morphology is mostly uniform. The two cells that exhibited some signs of SPB maturation may already have initiated maturation during the induction period for cdc18p-OE. If the frequency of SPBs with early stage maturation in the cdc18p-OE population (10%) reflects the execution point for this process, then early stage maturation must be initiated very close to the boundary of the G2/M transition. This estimate is consistent with the previous observation that the maturation does not start until the later stages of G2 (Ding et al., 1997
). All of the SPBs observed in cdc18p-OE cells seemed normal in terms of size and morphology, in contrast to the SPBs found in rum1p-OE cells (described below). The observation that most of the SPBs show no signs of maturation demonstrates that the block of early maturation during S phase is dependent on either the cdc18p or an S-phase event such as formation of replication forks.
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Duplication and Early Maturation of SPB Can Occur without Preceding M Phase
We further investigated the requirement of previous cell cycle events for the initiation of SPB duplication. rum1p is an inhibitor of the mitotic form of cdc2p kinase and prevents mitosis from occurring prematurely. Overexpression of rum1p directs cells to go through G1, S, and G2 and reenter G1 before Start without going through M, and as a result cells end up with a higher DNA content (Figure 6A, diagram). As shown in Figure 6B, these cells have a 4C or greater DNA content and are abnormally long because mitosis and cytokinesis has not occurred. In cells overexpressing rum1p, overreplication of the genome is dependent on cdc2p kinase and the G1 cyclins pcl1p, cig1p, and partially cig2p and requires activation of the res2pcdc10 p complex. (Fisher and Nurse, 1995
; Martín-Castellanos and Moreno, 1996
; Tanaka and Okayama, 2000
). Rum1p-OE affects pre-Start events, whereas cdc18p-OE affects post-Start events but only with rum1p-OE does the cell actually leave S and enter G2. Analysis of SPB maturation in cells overexpressing rum1p allowed us to determine whether maturation requires a cdc10+-dependent passage through Start and exit from S.
The SPBs in cells (13 cells examined) overexpressing rum1p having gone through the equivalent of two or more S phases (Figure 6B) and have a morphology consistent not only with duplication but also with multiple early maturations (Figure 8). In the example shown in Figure 8, AD, two pairs of laminated structures, one member of the pair more than twofold larger than the other in length, can be distinguished in the serial sections. The consistent size difference between the two lamellae bodies in each pair, observed in all cells examined, may reflect the difference between new and old SPBs as described by Grallert et al. (2004
). However, SPB maturation, as determined by extent of membrane invagination and deposition of darkly staining material, was more variable in the cell population. For example, in a second cell (Figure 8, EI), although the SPB has a similar morphology to that observed in Figure 8, AD, several invaginations in the nuclear envelope are present beneath this complex structure. However, the morphology is also consistent with two rounds of duplication of the laminated structure, and several early maturations, because the laminated structures have not physically moved far apart, and the nuclear envelope (NE) seems to be intact. As shown by examining serial sections (our unpublished data), the lamellar bodies are discrete structures and the laminations in the two structures are at different angles with respect to each other. These results demonstrate that duplication of SPB and partial maturation of SPBs can occur even in the absence of a previous M phase, provided that cells enter S phase in a cdc2-dependent manner and leave S (Figure 6A, diagram). Also, these observations demonstrate that SPB duplication can occur in the absence of late-stage maturation or separation of the SPBs by mitosis.
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| DISCUSSION |
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To interpret our studies properly, it is necessary to make a distinction between the unduplicated and duplicated SPB and the subsequent changes in morphology as it matures. As described previously (Ding et al., 1997
), the morphology of the fission yeast SPB immediately after duplication consists of two laminated structures connected by an ellipsoid bridge. Because this structure sits on the outside of the NE it is difficult to distinguish it from unduplicated SPBs and may have been misidentified in cells grown in log phase (Ding et al., 1997
; Kniola et al., 2001
). To avoid this problem, in all experiments only complete serial sections running through the SPB were scored, and in several experiments tomographic reconstructions were made to confirm our interpretation of the serial sectioned SPBs. Our sample size was also largein all, 123 SPBs were reconstructed in this study.
Even though cdc10+ was originally used to define Start in S. pombe (Nurse and Bissett, 1981
), as we show in our results, some events down stream from the G1/S transition occur in cdc10-arrested cells. For this discussion, rather than defining Start as the cdc10+ execution point, we will define Start as being under cdc2p kinase control and cdc10p as downstream from that event. This is in agreement with the definition of START in budding yeast and many other organisms (Nurse and Bissett, 1981
).
cdc2p Kinase Control of SPB Duplication at the G1/S Boundary
Using nitrogen starvation to arrest cells in G1, and then releasing them from the block by using a ts allele of cdc2+, we demonstrate that SPB duplication in S. pombe, like in S. cerevisiae and mammalian cells, is under control of cdc2p kinase and occurs at the G1/S boundary. It is likely that they are under a direct control and in a pathway independent of cdc10+ because duplication does not require cdc10+, which is immediately down stream of cdc2+ (Labib et al., 1995
). There are three G1 cyclins in fission yeast, namely, cig1p, cig2p, and puc1p (Fisher and Nurse, 1995
; Martin-Castellanos et al., 1996
; Martín-Castellanos et al., 2000
; Tanaka and Okayama, 2000
). In addition to these characterized cyclins, there are other putative G1 cyclins in the genome database (S. pombe genome database, Sanger Institute, Cambridge, United Kingdom). One or more of these G1 CDK complexes may be responsible for controlling SPB duplication. Our conclusions placing the timing of duplication at the G1/S boundary are also supported by evidence for SPB duplication in HU-treated cells and cdc10 ts cells at the nonpermissive temperature. After HU treatment, cells enter S but proceed very slowly if all to replicate their DNA. The cdc10 mutants cells never start DNA replication. Under both conditions, the SPBs are duplicated. These experiments show that SPB duplication has been uncoupled from DNA replication and is consistent with SPB duplication happening at the G1/S boundary. In mammalian cells, it has been demonstrated that centrosome duplication occurs at the G1/S boundary and is under control of cdk2/cyclin E complex, or in some cases cyclin A (Hinchcliffe et al., 1999
; Lacey et al., 1999
; Matsumoto et al., 1999
; Meraldi et al., 1999
). Similarily in S. cerevisiae, SPB duplication is regulated by Cdc28 and the three G1 cyclins Cln1, 2, and 3 (Haase et al., 2001
). Thus, the timing of centrosome duplication at the G1/S boundary seems to be an evolutionary conserved event.
SPB Maturation Occurs in Two Phases, Probably under Different Cell Cycle Control
SPB maturation involves different events in fission yeast than in budding yeast and is not completed until the G2/M boundary. In budding yeast, SPB maturation, defined morphologically as SPB separation, is dependent on the S phase and M phase cyclins. Maturation is completed in S, and a small central spindle is present in S phase budding yeast cells (Haase et al., 2001
). In fission yeast, there is no spindle formation in S-phase cells, and there must be a mechanism, either negative or positive, to delay the onset of maturation until S is complete. As shown by the rum1p-OE results, exit from S and/or transit through G2 may be required for early stage maturation. A similar timing of initiation of centrosome maturation and hence the need for a similar S phase inhibitory mechanism is observed in many mammalian cells (Balczon et al., 1995
; reviewed in Hinchcliffe and Sluder, 2001
).
SPB maturation occurs in several steps. After duplication the SPB is associated with the cytoplasmic face of the NE (Tanaka and Kanbe, 1986
; Ding et al., 1997
). The laminated bodies increase in length and the bridge structure between them becomes attenuated, and dark staining material accumulates underneath these structures on the nucleoplasmic face of the NE as the NE invaginates. We call these events the early phase of maturation, and they do not occur until after cells exit S. Eventually, the laminated structures begin to nucleate microtubules and then separate, forming the spindle (Ding et al., 1997
). We have called these events the late phase of maturation.
We suggest that late stage maturation is under a different cell cycle regulation than early phase maturation. In log growth phase cells, early and late phase maturation events seem to occur in rapid succession; early phase events were seldom observed in these cultures (Ding et al., 1997
). However, in the cell cycle arrest/release experiments described here, maturation when observed was incomplete and seemed not to progress beyond the early stage. Using log phase cells, Ding et al., 1997
demonstrated that maturation occurred in G2. We concur and think that both stages of maturation occur after leaving S, but late stage maturation requires crossing the G2/M boundary for its completion. Because the cells used in our experiments were never allowed to cross the G2/M boundary, the conditions for late stage maturation were not met in our arrest/release experiments. In cells overexpressing rum1p, the cells in question cross the G1/S boundary, initiate DNA replication in a cdc10+-dependent manner, exit into G2, and then reenter G1 without ever going through M (Moreno and Nurse, 1994
; Nishitani and Nurse, 1995
). rum1p-overexpressing cells show early stage maturation. In contrast, cdc18p-overexpressing cells bypass a requirement for cdc2p/G1 cyclins and res1p-cdc10p to initiate DNA replication and never leave S. Although cdc18p-overexpressing cells undergo SPB duplication, SPB maturation is not initiated. This is consistent with a model that exit from S is required for the early stage maturation to occur and that late stage maturation requires entrance into M (Figure 9B).
S Phase-dependent Feedback Inhibition of Early SPB Maturation
We invoke a feedback inhibition mechanism downstream of cdc10+ to block the early phase of maturation until completion of S, i.e., completion of DNA synthesis. Although it is possible that early stage maturation is under positive cell cycle and only G2 is permissive for early stage maturation to occur, this simple model is contradicted by our observations of SPB duplication and early stage maturation in cdc10+-inactive cells. When cells initiated SPB duplication in the absence of normal cdc10+, they also underwent early stage maturation, even though these cells never entered S or G2. Maturation was blocked in cells overexpressing cdc18p and in HU-treated cells, conditions that place these cells down-stream of a requirement for cdc10+. The simplest explanation of these results is that during S-phase early stage maturation is blocked by a feedback inhibition mechanism that is cdc10+ dependent. These results also demonstrate that early stage maturation cannot be under control of the cdc2p/mitotic cyclin complex because only the cdc2p/S phase cyclin complex is active under these conditions (Labib et al., 1995
; Tanaka and Okayama, 2000
). The absence of SPB maturation in HU-treated cells and in cells overexpressing cdc18p suggests that the mechanism of feedback inhibition is coupled to an event involved in DNA synthesis, for example, the formation of replication forks or that it requires cdc18p itself.
We propose that cdc18p is the protein blocking the early maturation of duplicated SPBs until the completion of the S phase. Cdc18p has been shown to be required for maintenance of the replication fork and it activates the S phase DNA replication checkpoint pathway (Murakami et al., 2002
), The presence of replication forks maintained by cdc18p could send signals to the cell to inhibit early phase SPB maturation and thus coordinate SPB duplication/early maturation with DNA replication. This model is consistent with our observation of early stage maturation in cells overexpressing rum1p, because rum1p OE triggers entrance into S upstream of cdc10+, but these cells subsequently exit from S. In the future, it will be important to identify other proteins involved in the SPB duplication/maturation checkpoint pathway and to show whether it shares some common components with the DNA replication checkpoint pathway.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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| Footnotes |
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The online version of this article contains supplemental material at MBC Online (http://www.molbiolcell.org). ![]()
Corresponding author. E-mail address: zcande{at}uclink4.berkeley.edu.
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