Haruhiko Asakawa

In vivo evidence for the fibrillar structures of Sup35 prions in yeast cells

Correlative light and electron microscopy provides support for the linear amalgamation of yeast prion proteins.

Nucleoporin Nup98: a gatekeeper in the eukaryotic kingdoms

The nucleoporin Nup98 is an essential component of the nuclear pore complex. This peripheral nucleoporin with its Gly‐Leu‐Phe‐Gly (GLFG) repeat domain contributes to nuclear‐cytoplasmic trafficking, including mRNA export. In addition, accumulating studies indicate that Nup98 plays roles in several important biological events such as gene expression, mitotic checkpoint, and pathogenesis. Nup98 is well conserved among organisms belonging to the fungi and animal kingdoms. These kingdoms belong to the eukaryotic supergroup Opisthokonta. However, there is considerable diversity in the Nup98 orthologs expressed in organisms belonging to other eukaryotic supergroups. Intriguingly, in ciliates, a unicellular organism having two functionally distinct nuclei, GLFG‐Nup98 is present in one of the nuclei and a distinct Nup98 ortholog is present in the other nucleus, and these different Nup98s participate in a nucleus‐selective transport mechanism. In this review, we focus on Nup98 function and discuss how this nucleoporin has evolved in eukaryotic kingdoms.

Inner nuclear membrane protein Ima1 is dispensable for intranuclear positioning of centromeres.

Inner nuclear membrane (INM) proteins play a role in spatial organization of chromosomes within the nucleus. In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Sad1, an INM protein of the conserved SUN‐domain family, plays an active role in moving chromosomes along the nuclear membranes during meiotic prophase. Ima1 is another conserved INM protein recently identified. A previous study claimed that Ima1 is essential for mitotic cell growth, linking centromeric heterochromatin to the spindle‐pole body. However, we obtained results contradictory to the previously proposed role for Ima1: Ima1 was dispensable for mitotic cell growth or centromere positioning. This discrepancy was attributed to incorrect ima1 deletion mutants used in the previous study. Our results show that Ima1 collaborates with two other conserved INM proteins of the LEM‐domain family that are homologous to human Man1 and Lem2. Loss of any one of three INM proteins has no effect on mitotic cell growth; however, loss of all these proteins causes severe defects in mitotic cell growth and nuclear membrane morphology. Considering that all three INM proteins interact with Sad1, these results suggest that Ima1, Lem2 and Man1 play at least partially redundant roles for nuclear membrane organization.

Live Observation of Forespore Membrane Formation in Fission Yeast

Sporulation in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe is a unique biological process in that the plasma membrane of daughter cells is assembled de novo within the mother cell cytoplasm. A double unit membrane called the forespore membrane (FSM) is constructed dynamically during meiosis. To obtain a dynamic view of FSM formation, we visualized FSM in living cells by using green fluorescent protein fused with Psy1, an FSM-resident protein, together with the nucleus or microtubules. The assembly of FSM initiates in prophase II, and four FSMs in a cell expand in a synchronous manner at the same rate throughout meiosis II. After the meiosis II completes, FSMs continue to expand until closure to form the prespore, a spore precursor. Prespores are initially ellipsoidal, and eventually become spheres. FSM formation was also observed in the sporulation-deficient mutants spo3, spo14, and spo15. In the spo15 mutant, the initiation of FSM formation was completely blocked. In the spo3 mutant, the FSM expanded normally during early meiosis II, but it was severely inhibited during late and postmeiosis, whereas in the spo14 mutant, membrane expansion was more severely inhibited throughout meiosis II. These observations suggest that FSM expansion is composed of two steps, early meiotic FSM expansion and late and post meiotic FSM expansion. Possible regulatory mechanisms of FSM formation in fission yeast are discussed.

Characterization of nuclear pore complex components in fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe

The nuclear pore complex (NPC) is an enormous proteinaceous complex composed of multiple copies of about 30 different proteins called nucleoporins. In this study, we analyzed the composition of the NPC in the model organism Schizosaccharomyces pombe using strains in which individual nucleoporins were tagged with GFP. We identified 31 proteins as nucleoporins by their localization to the nuclear periphery. Gene disruption analysis in previous studies coupled with gene disruption analysis in the present study indicates that 15 of these nucleoporins are essential for vegetative cell growth and the other 16 nucleoporins are non-essential. Among the 16 non-essential nucleoporins, 11 are required for normal progression through meiosis and their disruption caused abnormal spore formation or poor spore viability. Based on fluorescence measurements of GFP-fused nucleoporins, we estimated the composition of the NPC in S. pombe and found that the organization of the S. pombe NPC is largely similar to that of other organisms; a single NPC was estimated as being 45.8–47.8 MDa in size. We also used fluorescence measurements of single NPCs and quantitative western blotting to analyze the composition of the Nup107-Nup160 subcomplex, which plays an indispensable role in NPC organization and function. Our analysis revealed low amounts of Nup107 and Nup131 and high amounts of Nup132 in the Nup107-Nup160 subcomplex, suggesting that the composition of this complex in S. pombe may differ from that in S. cerevisiae and humans. Comparative analysis of NPCs in various organisms will lead to a comprehensive understanding of the functional architecture of the NPC.

Role of Septins in the Orientation of Forespore Membrane Extension during Sporulation in Fission Yeast

ABSTRACT During yeast sporulation, a forespore membrane (FSM) initiates at each spindle-pole body and extends to form the spore envelope. We used Schizosaccharomyces pombe to investigate the role of septins during this process. During the prior conjugation of haploid cells, the four vegetatively expressed septins (Spn1, Spn2, Spn3, and Spn4) coassemble at the fusion site and are necessary for its normal morphogenesis. Sporulation involves a different set of four septins (Spn2, Spn5, Spn6, and the atypical Spn7) that does not include the core subunits of the vegetative septin complex. The four sporulation septins form a complex in vitro and colocalize interdependently to a ring-shaped structure along each FSM, and septin mutations result in disoriented FSM extension. The septins and the leading-edge proteins appear to function in parallel to orient FSM extension. Spn2 and Spn7 bind to phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphate [PtdIns(4)P] in vitro, and PtdIns(4)P is enriched in the FSMs, suggesting that septins bind to the FSMs via this lipid. Cells expressing a mutant Spn2 protein unable to bind PtdIns(4)P still form extended septin structures, but these structures fail to associate with the FSMs, which are frequently disoriented. Thus, septins appear to form a scaffold that helps to guide the oriented extension of the FSM.

Biased assembly of the nuclear pore complex is required for somatic and germline nuclear differentiation in Tetrahymena

Ciliates have two functionally distinct nuclei, a somatic macronucleus (MAC) and a germline micronucleus (MIC) that develop from daughter nuclei of the last postzygotic division (PZD) during the sexual process of conjugation. Understanding this nuclear dimorphism is a central issue in ciliate biology. We show, by live‐cell imaging of Tetrahymena, that biased assembly of the nuclear pore complex (NPC) occurs immediately after the last PZD, which generates anterior‐posterior polarized nuclei: MAC‐specific NPCs assemble in anterior presumptive MACs but not in posterior presumptive MICs. MAC‐specific NPC assembly in the anterior nuclei occurs much earlier than transport of Twi1p, which is required for MAC genome rearrangement. Correlative light‐electron microscopy shows that addition of new nuclear envelope (NE) precursors occurs through the formation of domains of redundant NE, where the outer double membrane contains the newly assembled NPCs. Nocodazole inhibition of the second PZD results in assembly of MAC‐specific NPCs in the division‐failed zygotic nuclei, leading to failure of MIC differentiation. Our findings demonstrate that NPC type switching has a crucial role in the establishment of nuclear differentiation in ciliates.

Live-Cell Fluorescence Imaging of Meiotic Chromosome Dynamics in Schizosaccharomyces pombe

The fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe has provided a useful experimental system to study nuclear structures during meiosis. Unlike many higher animals in which meiosis takes place only in specialized tissues deep inside their bodies, S. pombe is a unicellular eukaryote and its meiosis can be induced simply by depleting nitrogen sources from the culture medium. The entire process of meiosis is completed within several hours, and thus can be followed in individual living cells. These features provide ease of microscopic observation. A more trivial merit is its rod-like cell shape, which aids microscopic observation, as the long axis of cells is kept in the microscope image plane. Here we describe methods for induction of meiosis and fluorescence microscopy observation in living cells of S. pombe.

A Genetically Encoded Probe for Live-Cell Imaging of H4K20 Monomethylation

Eukaryotic gene expression is regulated in the context of chromatin. Dynamic changes in post-translational histone modification are thought to play key roles in fundamental cellular functions such as regulation of the cell cycle, development, and differentiation. To elucidate the relationship between histone modifications and cellular functions, it is important to monitor the dynamics of modifications in single living cells. A genetically encoded probe called mintbody (modification-specific intracellular antibody), which is a single-chain variable fragment tagged with a fluorescent protein, has been proposed as a useful visualization tool. However, the efficacy of intracellular expression of antibody fragments has been limited, in part due to different environmental conditions in the cytoplasm compared to the endoplasmic reticulum where secreted proteins such as antibodies are folded. In this study, we have developed a new mintbody specific for histone H4 Lys20 monomethylation (H4K20me1). The specificity of the H4K20me1-mintbody in living cells was verified using yeast mutants and mammalian cells in which this target modification was diminished. Expression of the H4K20me1-mintbody allowed us to monitor the oscillation of H4K20me1 levels during the cell cycle. Moreover, dosage-compensated X chromosomes were visualized using the H4K20me1-mintbody in mouse and nematode cells. Using X-ray crystallography and mutational analyses, we identified critical amino acids that contributed to stabilization and/or proper folding of the mintbody. Taken together, these data provide important implications for future studies aimed at developing functional intracellular antibodies. Specifically, the H4K20me1-mintbody provides a powerful tool to track this particular histone modification in living cells and organisms.

Inner nuclear membrane protein Lem2 augments heterochromatin formation in response to nutritional conditions

Inner nuclear membrane proteins interact with chromosomes in the nucleus and are important for chromosome activity. Lem2 and Man1 are conserved members of the LEM‐domain nuclear membrane protein family. Mutations of LEM‐domain proteins are associated with laminopathy, but their cellular functions remain unclear. Here, we report that Lem2 maintains genome stability in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. S. pombe cells disrupted for the lem2+ gene (lem2∆) showed slow growth and increased rate of the minichromosome loss. These phenotypes were prominent in the rich culture medium, but not in the minimum medium. Centromeric heterochromatin formation was augmented upon transfer to the rich medium in wild‐type cells. This augmentation of heterochromatin formation was impaired in lem2∆ cells. Notably, lem2∆ cells occasionally exhibited spontaneous duplication of genome sequences flanked by the long‐terminal repeats of retrotransposons. The resulting duplication of the lnp1+ gene, which encodes an endoplasmic reticulum membrane protein, suppressed lem2∆ phenotypes, whereas the lem2∆ lnp1∆ double mutant showed a severe growth defect. A combination of mutations in Lem2 and Bqt4, which encodes a nuclear membrane protein that anchors telomeres to the nuclear membrane, caused synthetic lethality. These genetic interactions imply that Lem2 cooperates with the nuclear membrane protein network to regulate genome stability.