Nocodazole induces mitotic cell death with apoptotic-like features in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
We investigated the fate of budding yeast treated with nocodazole, a microtubule-depolymerizing drug. Cells died after mitotic arrest while staying in mitosis, suggesting that mitotic cell death, but not mitotic slippage, mainly occurs in nocodazole-treated cells. Nocodazole-treated cells showed features of apoptotic-like cell death, but not those of cell lysis or autophagy. Consistently, mitochondria-dependent production of reactive oxygen species was involved in the cell death. Similar cell death was also seen in cells after mitotic arrest by perturbation of the anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome. In addition, caspase activity was found in nocodazole-treated cells, which was independent of the metacaspase, Mca1. Our results suggest that budding yeast can be a model to study mitotic cell death in cancer treatment with antimitotic drugs.
Endo
Kingo
K
Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer, Tohoku University, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan.
Mizuguchi
Mayumi
M
Harata
Aoi
A
Itoh
Go
G
Tanaka
Kozo
K
D064173:Anaphase-Promoting Complex-Cyclosome; D016923:Cell Death / Q000187:drug effects; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008870:Microtubules / Q000378:metabolism*; D008938:Mitosis / Q000187:drug effects*; D015739:Nocodazole / Q000494:pharmacology*; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000378:metabolism*; D043743:Ubiquitin-Protein Ligase Complexes / Q000378:metabolism*
D043743:Ubiquitin-Protein Ligase Complexes; D064173:Anaphase-Promoting Complex-Cyclosome; D015739:Nocodazole