Reconstruction of the kinetochore: a prelude to meiosis
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BioMed Central
Open Access
Review
Reconstruction of the kinetochore: a prelude to meiosis Haruhiko Asakawa1, Tokuko Haraguchi1,2 and Yasushi Hiraoka*1,2,3 Address: 1Kansai Advanced Research Center, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, 588-2 Iwaoka, Iwaoka-cho, Nishi-ku, Kobe 651-2492, Japan, 2Department of Biology, Graduate School of Science, Osaka University, 1-1 Machikaneyama, Toyonaka 5600043, Japan and 3Graduate School of Frontier Bioscience, Osaka University, 1-3 Yamadaoka, Suita 565-0871, Japan Email: Haruhiko Asakawa - [email protected]; Tokuko Haraguchi - [email protected]; Yasushi Hiraoka* - [email protected] * Corresponding author
Published: 6 June 2007 Cell Division 2007, 2:17
doi:10.1186/1747-1028-2-17
Received: 18 May 2007 Accepted: 6 June 2007
This article is available from: http://www.celldiv.com/content/2/1/17 © 2007 Asakawa et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract In eukaryotic organisms, chromosomes are spatially organized within the nucleus. Such nuclear architecture provides a physical framework for the genetic activities of chromosomes, and changes its functional organization as the cell moves through the phases of the cell cycle. The fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe provides a striking example of nuclear reorganization during the transition from mitosis to meiosis. In this organism, centromeres remain clustered at the spindlepole body (SPB; a centrosome-equivalent structure in fungi) during mitotic interphase. In contrast, during meiotic prophase, centromeres dissociate from the SPB and telomeres cluster to the SPB. Recent studies revealed that this repositioning of chromosomes is regulated by mating pheromone signaling. Some centromere proteins disappear from the centromere in response to mating pheromone, leading to dissociation of centromeres from the SPB. Interestingly, mating pheromone signaling is also required for monopolar orientation of the kinetochore which is crucial for proper segregation of sister chromatids during meiosis. When meiosis is induced in the absence of mating pheromone signaling, aberrant chromosome behaviors are observed: the centromere proteins remain at the centromere; the centromere remains associated with the SPB; and sister chromatids segregate precociously in the first meiotic division. These aberrant chromosome behaviors are all normalized by activating the mating pheromone signaling pathway. Thus, action of mating pheromone on the centromere is important for coherent behavior of chromosomes in meiosis. Here we discuss repositioning and reconstruction of the centromere during the transition from mitosis to meiosis, and highlight its significance for proper progression of meiosis.
Background Eukaryotic chromosomes are spatially organized within
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