title: Identification of novel temperature-sensitive lethal alleles in essential beta-tubulin and nonessential alpha 2-tubulin genes as fission yeast polarity mutants.
abstract: We have screened for temperature-sensitive (ts) fission yeast mutants with altered polarity (alp1-15). Genetic analysis indicates that alp2 is allelic to atb2 (one of two alpha-tubulin genes) and alp12 to nda3 (the single beta-tubulin gene). atb2(+) is nonessential, and the ts atb2 mutations we have isolated are dominant as expected. We sequenced two alleles of ts atb2 and one allele of ts nda3. In the ts atb2 mutants, the mutated residues (G246D and C356Y) are found at the longitudinal interface between alpha/beta-heterodimers, whereas in ts nda3 the mutated residue (Y422H) is situated in the domain located on the outer surface of the microtubule. The ts nda3 mutant is highly sensitive to altered gene dosage of atb2(+); overexpression of atb2(+) lowers the restrictive temperature, and, conversely, deletion rescues ts. Phenotypic analysis shows that contrary to undergoing mitotic arrest with high viability via the spindle assembly checkpoint as expected, ts nda3 mutants execute cytokinesis and septation and lose viability. Therefore, it appears that the ts nda3 mutant becomes temperature lethal because of irreversible progression through the cell cycle in the absence of activating the spindle assembly checkpoint pathway.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cell Regulation, Imperial Cancer Research Fund, London WC2A 3PX, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Radcliffe
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hirata
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Childs
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Vardy
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Toda
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D002455:Cell Division / Q000235:genetics; D016764:Cell Polarity / Q000235:genetics; D005800:Genes, Fungal; D005804:Genes, Lethal; D008870:Microtubules / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016297:Mutagenesis, Site-Directed; D010641:Phenotype; D012568:Schizosaccharomyces / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D008941:Spindle Apparatus / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D013194:Staining and Labeling; D013696:Temperature; D014404:Tubulin / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D014404:Tubulin