Spo13 regulates cohesin cleavage

A key aspect of meiotic chromosome segregation is that cohesin, the protein complex that holds sister chromatids together, dissociates from chromosome arms during meiosis I and from centromeric regions during meiosis II. The budding yeast protein Spo13 plays a key role in preventing centromeric cohesin from being lost during meiosis I. We have determined the molecular basis for the metaphase arrest obtained when SPO13 is overexpressed during the mitotic cell cycle. Overexpression of SPO13 inhibits anaphase onset by at least two mechanisms. First, Spo13 causes a transient delay in degradation of the anaphase inhibitor Pds1. Second, Spo13 inhibits cleavage of the cohesin subunit Scc1/Mcd1 or its meiosis-specific homolog, Rec8, by the separase Esp1. The finding that Spo13 did not prevent cleavage of another Esp1 substrate, Slk19, suggests that overexpression of SPO13 is sufficient to prevent cohesin cleavage by protecting specific substrates from separase activity.