Journal
JOURNAL OF EUKARYOTIC MICROBIOLOGY
Volume 64, Issue 3, Pages 293-307Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/jeu.12366
Keywords
Macronucleus; micronucleus; microtubule; minus-end motors; spindle
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Funding
- NIH [RO1GM089912]
- Sumitomo Foundation
- Novartis Foundation
- Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba
- Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [16K07338] Funding Source: KAKEN
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Ciliates such as Tetrahymena thermophila have two distinct nuclei within one cell: the micronucleus that undergoes mitosis and meiosis and the macronucleus that undergoes amitosis, a type of nuclear division that does not involve a bipolar spindle, but still relies on intranuclear microtubules. Ciliates provide an opportunity for the discovery of factors that specifically contribute to chromosome segregation based on a bipolar spindle, by identification of factors that affect the micronuclear but not the macronuclear division. Kinesin-14 is a conserved minus-end directed microtubule motor that cross-links microtubules and contributes to the bipolar spindle sizing and organization. Here, we use homologous DNA recombination to knock out genes that encode kinesin-14 orthologues (KIN141, KIN142) in Tetrahymena. A loss of KIN141 led to severe defects in the chromosome segregation during both mitosis and meiosis but did not affect amitosis. A loss of KIN141 altered the shape of the meiotic spindle in a way consistent with the KIN141's contribution to the organization of the spindle poles. EGFP-tagged KIN141 preferentially accumulated at the spindle poles during the meiotic prophase and metaphase I. Thus, in ciliates, kinesin-14 is important for nuclear divisions that involve a bipolar spindle.
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