9
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: not found

      Regulation of Cell Polarity by Microtubules in Fission Yeast

      research-article

      Read this article at

      ScienceOpenPublisherPMC
      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          To investigate the role of microtubules in regulating cell polarity in Schizosaccharomyces pombe, we have developed a system in which normally cylindrical fission yeast synchronously form branched cells at high frequency upon treatment with the microtubule-depolymerizing drug thiabendazole (TBZ). Branching depends on both elevated temperature and cell cycle state and occurs at high frequency only when TBZ is added to cells that have not yet passed through New-End Take-Off (NETO), the normal transition from monopolar to bipolar growth. This suggests that microtubules may be of greatest physiological importance for the maintenance of cell shape at specific points in the cell cycle. The localization of three different proteins normally found at cell ends—cortical F-actin, tea1, and an ral3 (scd2)–green fluorescent protein (GFP) fusion—is disrupted by TBZ treatment. However, these proteins can eventually return to cell ends in the absence of microtubules, indicating that although their localization to ends normally depends on microtubules, they may recover by alternative mechanisms. In addition, TBZ induces a shift in ral3–GFP distribution from cell ends to the cell middle, suggesting that a protein complex containing ral3 may be part of the cue that specifies the position of branch formation.

          Related collections

          Most cited references67

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: found
          • Article: not found

          FACS-optimized mutants of the green fluorescent protein (GFP).

          We have constructed a library in Escherichia coli of mutant gfp genes (encoding green fluorescent protein, GFP) expressed from a tightly regulated inducible promoter. We introduced random amino acid (aa) substitutions in the twenty aa flanking the chromophore Ser-Tyr-Gly sequence at aa 65-67. We then used fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) to select variants of GFP that fluoresce between 20-and 35-fold more intensely than wild type (wt), when excited at 488 nm. Sequence analysis reveals three classes of aa substitutions in GFP. All three classes of mutant proteins have highly shifted excitation maxima. In addition, when produced in E. coli, the folding of the mutant proteins is more efficient than folding of wt GFP. These two properties contribute to a greatly increased (100-fold) fluorescence intensity, making the mutants useful for a number of applications.
            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: not found
            • Article: not found

            Origins of cell polarity.

              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: found
              • Article: not found

              High Rates of Actin Filament Turnover in Budding Yeast and Roles for Actin in Establishment and Maintenance of Cell Polarity Revealed Using the Actin Inhibitor Latrunculin-A

              We report that the actin assembly inhibitor latrunculin-A (LAT-A) causes complete disruption of the yeast actin cytoskeleton within 2–5 min, suggesting that although yeast are nonmotile, their actin filaments undergo rapid cycles of assembly and disassembly in vivo. Differences in the LAT-A sensitivities of strains carrying mutations in components of the actin cytoskeleton suggest that tropomyosin, fimbrin, capping protein, Sla2p, and Srv2p act to increase actin cytoskeleton stability, while End3p and Sla1p act to decrease stability. Identification of three LAT-A resistant actin mutants demonstrated that in vivo effects of LAT-A are due specifically to impairment of actin function and implicated a region on the three-dimensional actin structure as the LAT-A binding site. LAT-A was used to determine which of 19 different proteins implicated in cell polarity development require actin to achieve polarized localization. Results show that at least two molecular pathways, one actindependent and the other actin-independent, underlie polarity development. The actin-dependent pathway localizes secretory vesicles and a putative vesicle docking complex to sites of cell surface growth, providing an explanation for the dependence of polarized cell surface growth on actin function. Unexpectedly, several proteins that function with actin during cell polarity development, including an unconventional myosin (Myo2p), calmodulin, and an actin-interacting protein (Bud6/Aip3p), achieved polarized localization by an actin-independent pathway, revealing interdependence among cell polarity pathways. Finally, transient actin depolymerization caused many cells to abandon one bud site or mating projection and to initiate growth at a second site. Thus, actin filaments are also required for maintenance of an axis of cell polarity.
                Bookmark

                Author and article information

                Journal
                J Cell Biol
                The Journal of Cell Biology
                The Rockefeller University Press
                0021-9525
                1540-8140
                27 July 1998
                : 142
                : 2
                : 457-471
                Affiliations
                Imperial Cancer Research Fund, London WC2A 3PX, United Kingdom
                Article
                10.1083/jcb.142.2.457
                2133047
                9679144
                103fc762-b60c-41e3-9cfe-585f449fff7e
                Copyright @ 1998
                History
                : 26 November 1997
                : 15 May 1998
                Categories
                Articles

                Cell biology
                s. pombe,microtubules,thiabendazole,actin,cell polarity
                Cell biology
                s. pombe, microtubules, thiabendazole, actin, cell polarity

                Comments

                Comment on this article