Project name: Schizosaccharomyces pombe

Description: Compared to mitosis, much remains to be elucidated about molecular regulation of meiosis, although increasing light has been shed recently on its signal transduction, cell cycle regulation and chromosome dynamics. Here we show that some transcripts required exclusively for meiosis in fission yeast, such as mei4 mRNA encoding a transcription factor or rec8 mRNA encoding a cohesin subunit, are highly unstable if expressed during the mitotic cell cycle. These transcripts carry a cis-acting region responsible for the mitotic instability, which we name DSR. A YTH-family protein encoded by the mmi1 gene is essential for manifestation of their instability. Deletion of mmi1 impairs cell growth severely, apparently due to detriments brought by untimely expression of meiotic messages. Microarray analysis using a temperature-sensitive mmi1 mutant has revealed that at least a dozen of meiosis-specific transcripts are governed by the DSR-mmi1 system. Thus, regulation of mRNA stability appears to play a crucial role in differentiating the mitotic and the meiotic cell cycles.Keywords: Keywards: Time course, Temperature-sensitive mutant, mmi1Overall design: Gene expression profile in the absence or presence of the fission yeast mmi1 gene function.Type of experiment: Comparing between vegetatively-growing control cells and cells in each experimental condition.Experimental factor: Time course after the shift to the restrictive temperature with mmi1-ts3 mutant cells or wild-type control cells.Quality control steps taken: All experiments were repeated twice in each condition.

Data type: Transcriptome or Gene expression

Sample scope: Multiisolate

Relevance: ModelOrganism

Release date: 2006-07-06

Last updated: 2005-09-16