A quality control mechanism linking meiotic success to release of ascospores.

ABSTRACT: Eukaryotic organisms employ a variety of mechanisms during meiosis to assess and ensure the quality of their gametes. Defects or delays in successful meiotic recombination activate conserved mechanisms to delay the meiotic divisions, but many multicellular eukaryotes also induce cell death programs to eliminate gametes deemed to have failed during meiosis. It is generally thought that yeasts lack such mechanisms. Here, we show that in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, defects in meiotic recombination lead to the activation of a checkpoint that is linked to ascus wall endolysis--the process by which spores are released in response to nutritional cues for subsequent germination. Defects in meiotic recombination are sensed as unrepaired DNA damage through the canonical ATM and ATR

SUBMITTER: Guo H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3846778 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature