Regulatory mechanisms in meiosis

doi:10.1016/0955-0674(93)90106-Z

Current Opinion in Cell Biology

Volume 5, Issue 2, April 1993, Pages 219-225

https://doi.org/10.1016/0955-0674(93)90106-Z Get rights and content

Abstract

Meiosis can be viewed both as a process of cell differentiation and as a modification of the mitotic cell cycle. Here we describe recent progress in defining a variety of regulatory mechanisms that govern the meiotic divisions. Studies in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and in higher organisms have led to complementary insights into these controls.

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Control of Meiosis by Respiration
2008, Current Biology
Citation Excerpt :
We next tested whether induction of the early meiotic genes allowed sporulation in KCl by utilizing a strain bearing an allele of the protein kinase Ime2, ime2-as, which can be reversibly inhibited by the ATP analog 1-NA-PP1 [2]. In the presence of the inhibitor, IME1, a transcription factor governing entry into meiosis [3], and other early meiotic genes are expressed but premeiotic DNA replication and subsequent meiotic events are not initiated [2] (compare also Figures S1A and S3A). When the inhibitor was washed out of KAc cultures, cells sporulated efficiently only when released into KAc, whereas tetranucleate formation was decreased by more than 7-fold in cells released into KCl medium (Figure 1B).
A cell's decision to undergo meiosis is regulated by multiple signals. In budding yeast, these signals include mating-type status, nutrient starvation, and respiration; the need for respiration is often manifested as a requirement for a nonfermentable carbon source. We have dissected the roles of respiration and carbon source in promoting entry into the meiotic program. This analysis revealed that respiration is needed throughout meiosis but a nonfermentable carbon source is necessary only prior to the meiotic nuclear divisions. A nonfermentable carbon source serves several roles during the early stages of meiosis. It is required for PolII transcription, DNA replication, and recombination. Finally, although the global downregulation of transcription and lack of DNA replication in nonrespiring cells could be due to a lack of energy, we show that the inability to induce genes initiating entry into the meiotic program is not. We propose that a separate respiration-sensing pathway governs meiotic entry.
Ume1p Represses Meiotic Gene Transcription in Saccharomyces cerevisiae through Interaction with the Histone Deacetylase Rpd3p
2003, Journal of Biological Chemistry
Ume1p is a member of a conserved protein family including RbAp48 that associates with histone deacetylases. Consistent with this finding, Ume1p is required for the full repression of a subset of meiotic genes during vegetative growth in budding yeast. In addition to mitotic cell division, this report describes a new role for Ume1p in meiotic gene repression in precommitment sporulating cultures returning to vegetative growth. However, Ume1p is not required to re-establish repression as part of the meiotic transient transcription program. Mutational analysis revealed that two conserved domains (NEE box and a WD repeat motif) are required for Ume1p-dependent repression. Co-immunoprecipitation studies revealed that both the NEE box and the WD repeat motif are essential for normal Rpd3p binding. Finally, Ume1p-Rpd3p association is dependent on the global co-repressor Sin3p. Moreover, this activity was localized to one of the four paired amphipathic-helix domains of Sin3p shown previously to be required for transcriptional repression. These findings support a model that Ume1p binding to Rpd3p is required for its repression activity. In addition, these results suggest that Rpd3-Ume1p-Sin3p comprises an interdependent complex required for mediating transcriptional repression.
Differential regulation of growth and checkpoint control mediated by a Cdc25 mitotic phosphatase from Pneumocystis carinii
2001, Journal of Biological Chemistry
Citation Excerpt :
In response to environmental stimuli, signal transduction pathways are activated that eventually impact on the cell cycle machinery. Cdc25 is a key regulator of several cellular processes including regulating entry into mitosis, meiotic phase transitions, and maintaining G2/M and S/M checkpoints in the response to DNA damage and incomplete DNA replication (26-31). The protein complexes that sense DNA damage or stalled DNA replication forks transmit signals that ultimately lead to the inactivation of Cdc2 (32, 33, 37).
Pneumocystis carinii is an opportunistic fungal pathogen phylogenetically related to the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. P. carinii causes severe pneumonia in immunocompromised patients with AIDS and malignancies. Although the life cycle of P. carinii remains poorly characterized, morphologic studies of infected lung tissue indicate that P. carinii alternates between numerous small trophic forms and fewer large cystic forms. To understand further the molecular mechanisms that regulate progression of the cell cycle of P. carinii, we have sought to identify and characterize genes in P. carinii that are important regulators of eukaryotic cell cycle progression. In this study, we have isolated a cDNA from P. carinii that exhibits significant homology, but unique functional characteristics, to the mitotic phosphatase Cdc25 found in S. pombe. P. carinii Cdc25 was shown to rescue growth of the temperature-sensitive S. pombe cdc25-22 strain and thus provides an additional tool to investigate the unique P. carinii life cycle. Although P. carinii Cdc25 could also restore the DNA damage checkpoint in cdc25-22 cells, it was unable to restore fully the DNA replication checkpoint. The dissociation of checkpoint control at the level of Cdc25 indicates that Cdc25 may be under distinct regulatory control in mediating checkpoint signaling.
Identification of a male meiosis-specific gene, Tcte2, which is differentially spliced in species that form sterile hybrids with laboratory mice and deleted in t chromosomes showing meiotic drive
1997, Developmental Biology
Tcte2 (t complex testes expressed 2) is a male meiosis-specific gene that maps to band 3.3 of mouse chromosome 17. Two distinct male fertility defects, hybrid sterility and transmission ratio distortion, have previously been mapped to this region. Hybrid sterility arises in crosses between different mouse species and the F1 generation males have defects in the first meiotic division and are sterile. Transmission ratio distortion is shown by males heterozygous for the t haplotype form of chromosome 17 and is a type of meiotic drive in which male gametes function unequally at fertilization. The Tcte2 gene expresses a coding mRNA and a number of putative non-ORF transcripts in meiosis I. A deletion of the 5′ part of the locus abolishes Tcte2 expression on the t haplotype form of chromosome 17. Additionally, the series of putative non-ORF RNAs at the Tcte2 locus are differentially spliced in species that show hybrid sterility when crossed to laboratory mice. The identification of polymorphisms in t haplotypes and in different mouse species allows alleles of Tcte2 to be proposed as candidates for loci which contribute to both meiotic drive and hybrid sterility phenotypes. While theoretical considerations have previously been used to propose that speciation and meiotic drive involve alleles of the same genes, Tcte2 is the first cloned candidate gene to support this link at a molecular level.
Stopping and starting the meiotic cell cycle
1997, Current Opinion in Genetics and Development
The meiotic cell cycle arrests in response to both perturbations and developmental signal. Recent research suggests that meiosis has checkpoints to monitor the completion of meiotic recombination and the attachment of chromosomes to the spindle. New insights have been gained into how meiosis resumes after normal development arrests, and new genes have been identified that are required for proper meiotic progression.
Maternal Xenopus Cdk2-cyclin E complexes function during meiotic and early embryonic cell cycles that lack a G<inf>1</inf> phase
1995, Journal of Biological Chemistry
Earlier work demonstrated that cyclins A1, B1, and B2 are not associated with Cdk2 from unfertilized Xenopus eggs. As a potential Cdk2 partner during meiosis, a cyclin E homolog was cloned from a Xenopus oocyte cDNA library and found to be 60% identical at the amino acid level to human cyclin E. Cyclin E1 protein was detected in resting oocytes, and the level increased severalfold in meiosis II, concomitant with the appearance of forms with decreased electrophoretic mobility. During oocyte maturation, the patterns of cyclin E1-associated kinase activity and Cdk2 activity were identical, with activity low until after germinal vesicle breakdown, peaking during meiosis II. Cyclin E1 complexes immunoprecipitated from unfertilized Xenopus eggs contained Cdk2 but not Cdc2. In cycling egg extracts Cdk2-cyclin E1-associated kinase activity oscillated, but the level of cyclin E1 protein and its association with Cdk2 did not vary appreciably; complex activity appeared to be regulated neither by the synthesis and destruction of the cyclin subunit nor by association/disassociation of the two subunits. During the early cleavage divisions in embryos, cyclin E1 and Cdk2 remained associated. The data indicate that the Cdk2-cyclin E complex functions during meiotic and embryonic cell cycles in addition to performing its established role during G₁ in somatic cells.

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Regulatory mechanisms in meiosis

Abstract

Cell

Cell

Cell

Cell

Genes Dev

Mol Cell Biol

Science

Genes Dev

Mol Biol Cell

Activation of Meiosis and Sporulation by Repression of the RME1 Product in Yeast

Nature

The Yeast RME1 gene Encodes a Putative Zinc Finger Protein That is Directly Repressed By a1-α2

Genes Dev

IME4, a Gene That Mediates MAT and Nutritional Control of Meiosis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Mol Cell Biol

Role of IME1 Expression in Regulation of Meiosis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Mol Cell Biol

Nutritional Regulation of Meiosis-Specific Gene Expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Biosci Biotech Biochem

Positive and Negative Elements Upstream of the Meiosis-Specific Glucoamylase Gene in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Mol Gen Genet

Commitment to Meiosis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Involvement of the SPO14 Gene

Genetics

Identification of Negative Regulatory Genes That Govern the Expression of Early Meiotic Genes in Yeast

Selection for Early Meiotic Mutants in Yeast

Genetics

Identification of Functionally Related Genes That Stimulate Early Meiotic Gene Expression in Yeast

Genetics

Nucleotide Sequence and Promoter Analysis of SPO13, a Meiosis-Specific Gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Meiotic Induction of the Yeast HOP1 Gene is Controlled by Positive and Negative Regulatory Sites

Mol Cell Biol

The Yeast UME6 Gene Product is Required for Transcriptional Repression Medicated by the CAR1 URS1 Repressor Binding Site

Nucleic Acids Res

RPD1 (SIN3/UME4) is Required for Maximal Activation and Repression of Diverse Yeast Genes

Mol Cell Biol

Positive Control of Sporulation-Specific Genes by the IME1 and IME2 Products in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Mol Cell Biol

Early Meiotic Transcripts are Highly Unstable in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Mol Cell Biol

S.pombe pac1+, Whose Overexpression Inhibits Sexual Development, Encodes a Ribonuclease III-Like RNase

EMBO J

Meiosis-Specific RNA Splicing in Yeast

Cell

DMC1: A Meiosis-Specific Yeast Homolog of E. coli recA Required for Recombination, Synaptonemal Complex Formation, and Cell Cycle Progression

Cell

MEI4, a Meiosis-Specific Yeast Gene Required for Chromosome Synapsis

Mol Cell Biol

S.pombe pac1⁺, Whose Overexpression Inhibits Sexual Development, Encodes a Ribonuclease III-Like RNase