title: A wat1 mutant of fission yeast is defective in cell morphology.
abstract: The organization of the actin cytoskeleton plays an integral role in cell morphogenesis of all eukaryotes. We have isolated a temperature-sensitive mutant in Schizosaccharomyces pombe, wat1-1, in which acting patches are delocalized, resulting in an elliptically shaped cell phenotype. Molecular cloning and DNA sequencing of wat1+ showed that the gene encodes a 314 residue protein containing WD-40 repeats. Cells lacking wat1+ are slow growing but viable at 25 degrees C and temperature-sensitive for growth above 33 degrees C. At restrictive temperature, wat1-d strains are phenotypically indistinguishable from wat1-1. When combined with a deletion for the wat1+ gene, cdc mutants failed to elongate at restrictive temperature and exhibited alterations in actin patch localization. This analysis suggests that wat1+ is required directly or indirectly for polarized cell growth in S. pombe. Wat1p and a functional, epitope-tagged, version of Wat1p can be overproduced without inducing alterations in cell morphology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37232, USA.
authors.forename: J T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Kemp
authors.forename: M K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Balasubramanian
authors.forename: K L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Gould
mesh_terms: D000199:Actins / Q000378:metabolism; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000235:genetics; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D005800:Genes, Fungal; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D010641:Phenotype; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D012568:Schizosaccharomyces / Q000166:cytology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D029702:Schizosaccharomyces pombe Proteins; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D000199:Actins; D004271:DNA, Fungal; D005656:Fungal Proteins; C105525:Pop3 protein, S pombe; D029702:Schizosaccharomyces pombe Proteins