Dataset Information

Cytokinesis-based constraints on polarized cell growth in fission yeast.

ABSTRACT: The rod-shaped fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, which undergoes cycles of monopolar-to-bipolar tip growth, is an attractive organism for studying cell-cycle regulation of polarity establishment. While previous research has described factors mediating this process from interphase cell tips, we found that division site signaling also impacts the re-establishment of bipolar cell growth in the ensuing cell cycle. Complete loss or targeted disruption of the non-essential cytokinesis protein Fic1 at the division site, but not at interphase cell tips, resulted in many cells failing to grow at new ends created by cell division. This appeared due to faulty disassembly and abnormal persistence of the cell division machinery at new ends of fic1? cells. Moreover, additional mutants defective in the final stages of cytokinesis exhibited analogous growth polarity defects, supporting that robust completion of cell division contributes to new end-growth competency. To test this model, we genetically manipulated S. pombe cells to undergo new end take-off immediately after cell division. Intriguingly, such cells elongated constitutively at new ends unless cytokinesis was perturbed. Thus, cell division imposes constraints that partially override positive controls on growth. We posit that such constraints facilitate invasive fungal growth, as cytokinesis mutants displaying bipolar growth defects formed numerous pseudohyphae. Collectively, these data highlight a role for previous cell cycles in defining a cell's capacity to polarize at specific sites, and they additionally provide insight into how a unicellular yeast can transition into a quasi-multicellular state.

SUBMITTER: Bohnert KA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3475658 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Cytokinesis-based constraints on polarized cell growth in fission yeast.

Bohnert K Adam KA Gould Kathleen L KL

PLoS genetics 20121018 10

The rod-shaped fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, which undergoes cycles of monopolar-to-bipolar tip growth, is an attractive organism for studying cell-cycle regulation of polarity establishment. While previous research has described factors mediating this process from interphase cell tips, we found that division site signaling also impacts the re-establishment of bipolar cell growth in the ensuing cell cycle. Complete loss or targeted disruption of the non-essential cytokinesis protein F ...[more]

PMID: 23093943

Similar Datasets

Project description:To investigate the contributions of phosphatidylethanolamine to the growth and morphogenesis of the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, we have characterized three predicted genes in this organism, designated psd1, psd2, and psd3, encoding phosphatidylserine decarboxylases, which catalyze the conversion of phosphatidylserine to phosphatidylethanolamine in both eukaryotic and prokaryotic organisms. S. pombe mutants carrying deletions in any one or two psd genes are viable in complex rich medium and synthetic defined minimal medium. However, mutants carrying deletions in all three psd genes (psd1-3Delta mutants) grow slowly in rich medium and are inviable in minimal medium, indicating that the psd1 to psd3 gene products share overlapping essential cellular functions. Supplementation of growth media with ethanolamine, which can be converted to phosphatidylethanolamine by the Kennedy pathway, restores growth to psd1-3Delta cells in minimal medium, indicating that phosphatidylethanolamine is essential for S. pombe cell growth. psd1-3Delta cells produce lower levels of phosphatidylethanolamine than wild-type cells, even in medium supplemented with ethanolamine, indicating that the Kennedy pathway can only partially compensate for the loss of phosphatidylserine decarboxylase activity in S. pombe. psd1-3Delta cells appear morphologically indistinguishable from wild-type S. pombe cells in medium supplemented with ethanolamine, but when cultured in nonsupplemented medium, they produce high frequencies of abnormally shaped cells as well as cells exhibiting severe septation defects, including multiple, mispositioned, deformed, and misoriented septa. Our results demonstrate that phosphatidylethanolamine is essential for cell growth and for normal cytokinesis and cellular morphogenesis in S. pombe, and they illustrate the usefulness of this model eukaryote for investigating potentially conserved biological and molecular functions of phosphatidylethanolamine.

Dataset Information

Cytokinesis-based constraints on polarized cell growth in fission yeast.

Publications

Cytokinesis-based constraints on polarized cell growth in fission yeast.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets