title: Roles of the DYRK kinase Pom2 in cytokinesis, mitochondrial morphology, and sporulation in fission yeast.
abstract: Pom2 is predicted to be a dual-specificity tyrosine-phosphorylation regulated kinase (DYRK) related to Pom1 in Schizosaccharomyces pombe. DYRKs share a kinase domain capable of catalyzing autophosphorylation on tyrosine and exogenous phosphorylation on serine/threonine residues. Here we show that Pom2 is functionally different from the well-characterized Pom1, although they share 55% identity in the kinase domain and the Pom2 kinase domain functionally complements that of Pom1. Pom2 localizes to mitochondria throughout the cell cycle and to the contractile ring during late stages of cytokinesis. Overexpression but not deletion of pom2 results in severe defects in cytokinesis, indicating that Pom2 might share an overlapping function with other proteins in regulating cytokinesis. Gain and loss of function analyses reveal that Pom2 is required for maintaining mitochondrial morphology independently of microtubules. Intriguingly, most meiotic pom2Δ cells form aberrant asci with meiotic and/or forespore membrane formation defects. Taken together, Pom2 is a novel DYRK kinase involved in regulating cytokinesis, mitochondrial morphology, meiosis, and sporulation in fission yeast.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Genetics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, United States of America. wu.620@osu.edu
authors.forename: Pengcheng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Ran
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Yanfang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.forename: Jian-Qiu
authors.initials: JQ
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D048749:Cytokinesis; D017353:Gene Deletion; D005816:Genetic Complementation Test; D008540:Meiosis; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D021381:Protein Transport; D011505:Protein-Tyrosine Kinases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D012098:Reproduction; D012568:Schizosaccharomyces / Q000166:cytology* / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000502:physiology; D029702:Schizosaccharomyces pombe Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D013172:Spores, Fungal / Q000166:cytology / Q000201:enzymology*; D000097603:Dyrk Kinases
chemical_list: D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases; D011505:Protein-Tyrosine Kinases; D029702:Schizosaccharomyces pombe Proteins; D000097603:Dyrk Kinases