title: The telomere bouquet regulates meiotic centromere assembly.
abstract: The role of the conserved meiotic telomere bouquet has been enigmatic for over a century. We showed previously that disruption of the fission yeast bouquet impairs spindle formation in approximately half of meiotic cells. Surprisingly, bouquet-deficient meiocytes with functional spindles harbour chromosomes that fail to achieve spindle attachment. Kinetochore proteins and the centromeric histone H3 variant Cnp1 fail to localize to those centromeres that exhibit spindle attachment defects in the bouquet's absence. The HP1 orthologue Swi6 also fails to bind these centromeres, suggesting that compromised pericentromeric heterochromatin underlies the kinetochore defects. We find that centromeres are prone to disassembly during meiosis, but this is reversed by localization of centromeres to the telomere-proximal microenvironment, which is conducive to heterochromatin formation and centromere reassembly. Accordingly, artificially tethering a centromere to a telomere rescues the tethered centromere but not other centromeres. These results reveal an unanticipated level of control of centromeres by telomeres.
authors.affiliation: 1] National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA [2] Cancer Research UK, London Research Institute, London WC2A 3LY, UK.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Klutstein
authors.affiliation: 1] National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA [2] Cancer Research UK, London Research Institute, London WC2A 3LY, UK.
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fennell
authors.affiliation: 1] National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA [2] Cancer Research UK, London Research Institute, London WC2A 3LY, UK.
authors.forename: Alfonso
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fernández-Álvarez
authors.affiliation: 1] National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA [2] Cancer Research UK, London Research Institute, London WC2A 3LY, UK.
authors.forename: Julia Promisel
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Cooper
mesh_terms: D002503:Centromere / Q000378:metabolism*; D002868:Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D006570:Heterochromatin / Q000378:metabolism; D006657:Histones / Q000378:metabolism; D018386:Kinetochores / Q000378:metabolism; D008540:Meiosis / Q000235:genetics*; D012568:Schizosaccharomyces / Q000235:genetics*; D029702:Schizosaccharomyces pombe Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D008941:Spindle Apparatus / Q000235:genetics*; D016615:Telomere / Q000378:metabolism*; D034501:Telomere-Binding Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: C510171:Bqt1 protein, S pombe; D002868:Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone; C410349:Cnp1 protein, S pombe; D006570:Heterochromatin; D006657:Histones; D029702:Schizosaccharomyces pombe Proteins; C465958:Swi6 protein, S pombe; D034501:Telomere-Binding Proteins