Summary
The temperature sensitivity of sporulation in a well-characterized yeast strain lacking any known temperature sensitive genes has been investigated. Cytological observations by electron microscopy demonstrate that cells incubated in sporulation medium at a temperature inhibitory to sporulation became arrested in meiotic prophase. The stage of arrest was identified as pachytene by the presence of duplicated (but unseparated) spindle pole bodies and synaptonemal complex. Transfer of the arrested culture to lower temperature permitted resumption of meiosis and sporulation; transfer to vegetative medium resulted in reversion to mitotic division. Genetic analysis of cells that had reverted to mitosis revealed that commitment to intragenic recombination had occurred by the time of arrest. Prolonged incubation at the elevated temperature resulted in the enhancement of intragenic recombination above normal levels, suggesting that some aspect of recombination continued to occur during the pachytene arrest. Evidence is presented that DNA replication, although depressed overall in the arrested cultures, had occurred to completion in many arrested cells.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Byers B, Goetsch L (1975) Electron microscopic observations on the meiotic karyotype of diploid and tetraploid Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 72: 5056–5060
Croes AF (1967) Induction of meiosis in yeast. II. Metabolic factors leading to meiosis. Planta 76: 227–237
Carpenter ATC (1975) Electron microscopy of meiosis in Drosophila melanogaster females: II The recombination nodule — a recombination-associated structure at pachytene? Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 72: 3186–3189
Davidow LS, Goetsch L, Byers B (1980) Preferential occurrence of nonsister spores in two-spored asci of Saccharomyces cerevisiae: evidence for regulation of spore-wall formation by the spindle pole body. Genetics 94: 581–595
Esposito MS, Esposito RE (1974) Genes controlling meiosis and spore formation in yeast. Genetics 78: 215–225
Goetsch L, Byers B (1982) Meiotic cytology of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in protoplast lysates. Mol Gen Genet 187: 54–60
Hartwell LH (1974) Saccharomyces cerevisiae cell cycle. Bacteriol Rev 38: 164–198
Hartwell LH, Mortimer RK, Culotti J, Culotti M (1973) Genetic control of the cell division cycle of yeast. V Genetic analysis of cdc mutants. Genetics 74: 267–286
Henderson SA (1970) The time and place of meiotic crossing-over. Annu Rev Genet 4: 295–324
Heywood P, Magee PT (1976) Meiosis in protists. Bacteriol Rev 40: 190–240
Hopper AK, Magee PT, Welch SK, Friedman M, Hall BD (1974) Macromolecule synthesis and breakdown in relation to sporulation and meiosis in yeast. J Bacteriol 119: 619–628
Horesh O, Simchen G, Friedmann A (1979) Morphogenesis of the synapton during yeast meiosis. Chromosoma 75: 101–115
Hotta Y, Chandley AC, Stern H (1977) Biochemical analysis of meiosis in the male mouse. II DNA metabolism at pachytene. Chromosoma 62: 255–268
Hotta Y, Stern H (1971) Analysis of DNA synthesis during meiotic prophase in Lilium. J Mol Biol 55: 337–355
Kissane JM, Robins E (1958) The fluorometric measurement of DNA in animal tissues with special reference to the central nervous system. J Biol Chem 233: 184–188
Moens PB, Esposito RE, Esposito MS (1974) Aberrant nuclear behavior at meiosis and anucleate spore formation by sporulation-deficient (spo) mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Exp Cell Res 83: 166–174
Moens PB, Mowat M, Esposito MS, Esposito RE (1977) Meiosis in a temperature-sensitive DNA-synthesis mutant and in an apomictic yeast strain (Saccharomyces cerevisiae). Phil Trans R Soc Lond B 277: 351–358
Moens PB, Rapport E (1971) Spindles, spindle plaques, and meiosis in the yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Hansen). J Cell Biol 50: 344–361
Mortimer RK, Hawthorne DC (1975) Genetic mapping in yeast. Methods Cell Biol 11: 221–233
Moses MJ (1968) Synaptonemal complex. Annu Rev Genet 2: 363–412
Roth R (1976) Temperature-sensitive yeast mutants defective in meiotic recombination and replication. Genetics 83: 675–686
Roth R, Fogel S (1971) A system selective for yeast mutants deficient in meiotic recombination. Mol Gen Genet 112: 295–305
Roth R, Halvorson HO (1969) Sporulation of yeast harvested during logarithmic growth. J Bacteriol 98: 831–832
Roth TF, Ito M (1967) DNA dependent formation of the synaptonemal complex at meiotic prophase. J Cell Biol 35: 247–255
Schild D, Byers B (1978) Meiotic effects of DNA-defective cell division cycle mutations of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Chromosoma 70: 109–130
Schild D, Byers B (1980) Diploid spore formation and other meiotic effects of two cell-division-cycle mutations of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Genetics 96: 859–876
Sherman F, Roman HL (1963) Evidence for two types of allelic recombination in yeast. Genetics 48: 255–261
Silva-Lopez E, Zamb TJ, Roth R (1975) Role of premeiotic replication in gene conversion. Nature 253: 212–214
Simchen G (1974) Are mitotic functions required in meiosis? Genetics 76: 745–753
Simchen G, Kassir Y, Horesh-Cabilly O, Friedmann A (1981) Elevated recombination and pairing structures during meiotic arrest in yeast of the nuclear division mutant cdc5. Mol Gen Genet 184: 46–51
Simchen G, Piñon R, Salts Y (1972) Sporulation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: premeiotic DNA synthesis, readiness and commitment. Exp Cell Res 75: 207–218
White MJD (1973) Animal cytology and evolution, 3rd edn. Cambridge University Press, London
Zamb TJ, Roth R (1977) Role of mitotic replication genes in chromosome duplication during meiosis. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 74: 3951–3955
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Communicated by G. Fink
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Byers, B., Goetsch, L. Reversible pachytene arrest of Saccharomyces cerevisiae at elevated temperature. Molec. Gen. Genet. 187, 47–53 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00384382
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00384382