Reduced dosage of the chromosome axis factor Red1 selectively disrupts the meiotic recombination checkpoint in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

ABSTRACT: Meiotic chromosomes assemble characteristic "axial element" structures that are essential for fertility and provide the chromosomal context for meiotic recombination, synapsis and checkpoint signaling. Whether these meiotic processes are equally dependent on axial element integrity has remained unclear. Here, we investigated this question in S. cerevisiae using the putative condensin allele ycs4S. We show that the severe axial element assembly defects of this allele are explained by a linked mutation in the promoter of the major axial element gene RED1 that reduces Red1 protein levels to 20-25% of wild type. Intriguingly, the Red1 levels of ycs4S mutants support meiotic processes linked to axis integrity, including DNA double-strand break formation and deposition of the synapsis protein Zi

SUBMITTER: Markowitz TE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5549997 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature