RRC ID 11357
Author Castagnetti S, Oliferenko S, Nurse P.
Title Fission yeast cells undergo nuclear division in the absence of spindle microtubules.
Journal PLoS Biol
Abstract Mitosis in eukaryotic cells employs spindle microtubules to drive accurate chromosome segregation at cell division. Cells lacking spindle microtubules arrest in mitosis due to a spindle checkpoint that delays mitotic progression until all chromosomes have achieved stable bipolar attachment to spindle microtubules. In fission yeast, mitosis occurs within an intact nuclear membrane with the mitotic spindle elongating between the spindle pole bodies. We show here that in fission yeast interference with mitotic spindle formation delays mitosis only briefly and cells proceed to an unusual nuclear division process we term nuclear fission, during which cells perform some chromosome segregation and efficiently enter S-phase of the next cell cycle. Nuclear fission is blocked if spindle pole body maturation or sister chromatid separation cannot take place or if actin polymerization is inhibited. We suggest that this process exhibits vestiges of a primitive nuclear division process independent of spindle microtubules, possibly reflecting an evolutionary intermediate state between bacterial and Archeal chromosome segregation where the nucleoid divides without a spindle and a microtubule spindle-based eukaryotic mitosis.
Volume 8(10)
Pages e1000512
Published 2010-10-12
DOI 10.1371/journal.pbio.1000512
PII e1000512
PMID 20967237
PMC PMC2953530
MeSH Cell Nucleus Division / physiology* Centromere / metabolism Microtubules / genetics Microtubules / metabolism* Mitosis / physiology Recombinant Fusion Proteins / genetics Recombinant Fusion Proteins / metabolism Schizosaccharomyces / cytology* Schizosaccharomyces / genetics Schizosaccharomyces / metabolism* Schizosaccharomyces pombe Proteins / genetics Schizosaccharomyces pombe Proteins / metabolism* Spindle Apparatus / genetics Spindle Apparatus / metabolism*
IF 7.076
Times Cited 32
WOS Category BIOLOGY BIOCHEMISTRY & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
Resource
Yeast FY11386(MY3463) FY15674(ANF252-1B)