|
|
|
||||
| Home Help Feedback Subscriptions Archive Search Table of Contents | |||||
First published online 18 December 2007
doi: 10.1242/jcs.014449
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Short Report |

Department of Biology, Philipps-University Marburg, Karl-von-Frisch-Str. 8, 35032 Marburg, Germany
Author for correspondence (e-mail: sandrock{at}staff.uni-marburg.de)
Accepted 8 October 2007
Summary
In the dimorphic fungus Ustilago maydis the Rho-family GTP-binding protein Cdc42 and the Ste20-like kinase Don3 are both essential for triggering cell separation during cytokinesis. Since Don3 does not contain a Cdc42/Rac interaction and binding domain (CRIB), it is unclear how Cdc42 and Don3 cooperate in the regulation of cytokinesis. To analyse the regulatory network we generated an analogue-sensitive Don3 variant (Don3-as) that allows specific inhibition in vivo. The engineered kinase Don3M157A is fully active in vivo and can be specifically inhibited by low concentrations of the ATP-analogue NA-PP1. Inhibition of the Don3-as kinase activity immediately blocked cell separation resulting in the formation of clusters of nonseparated cells. Covalent labelling of cell wall proteins showed that, upon release of inhibition, cytokinesis was resumed instantaneously in all cells. By sequentially activating Don3 and Cdc42 we were able to demonstrate that both proteins act independently of each other and that Don3 activity precedes that of Cdc42. We provide evidence that Don3 and Cdc42 are crucial for the assembly of a contractile actomyosin ring, which is a prerequisite for secondary septum formation. We propose, that Don3 is involved in establishing a landmark, at which the Cdc42-dependent actomyosin ring formation will occur.
Key words: Cell division, Ustilago maydis, Germinal centre kinase, Chemical genetics, Small GTPase
Introduction
Cytokinesis in yeast-like growing fungi involves septin-ring assembly, septum formation and cell separation. In the ascomycetous yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe complex regulatory signalling modules trigger cytokinesis. The mitotic exit network (MEN) and the septation initiation network (SIN), respectively, coordinate the onset of septation and cytokinesis with the exit from the mitotic cell cycle (Krapp et al., 2004
; Simanis, 2003
; Walther and Wendland, 2003
). In the dimorphic basidiomycete Ustilago maydis, the GTP-binding protein Cdc42 together with its activator Don1 and the Ste20-like kinase Don3 are essential for the formation of a secondary septum, which is required for proper cytokinesis (Mahlert et al., 2006
; Weinzierl et al., 2002
). Deletion of either of don1, cdc42 or don3 interferes with cell separation resulting in the formation of large clusters of cells that are connected by their primary septum (Sandrock et al., 2006
; Weinzierl et al., 2002
).
Don3 belongs to the germinal centre kinase (GCK) subfamily of Ste20-like kinases. Although many GCKs have been described in a variety of organisms so far, only little is known about their functions in cellular signalling (Dan et al., 2001
). Don3 is related to Sid1p kinase, an essential component of the S. pombe SIN pathway (Sandrock et al., 2006
). Interestingly, in U. maydis the other components of the SIN pathway are not involved in cytokinesis but were shown to regulate nuclear envelope breakdown (NEBD) during mitosis (Sandrock et al., 2006
; Straube et al., 2005
). Up to now only Don3 plays a dual role and is required to trigger both NEBD and cell separation (Sandrock et al., 2006
). Whereas the function of Don3 in the regulation of NEBD appears to be homologous to that of the SIN-pathway kinase Sid1p, the question how Don3 triggers cell separation and how it interacts with the Cdc42 signalling cascade has not been resolved.
To elucidate the function of Don3 during cytokinesis and to investigate the crosstalk with Cdc42 we used chemical genetics. This approach was developed by the Shokat group (Shah et al., 1997
) and enables functional characterization of protein kinases in vivo. It has been used for many protein kinases in the yeasts S. cerevisiae and S. pombe as well as in mammalian cells (Bishop et al., 2001
; Burkard et al., 2007
; Knight and Shokat, 2007
). Chemical-genetic analysis of serine/threonine kinases involves specific inhibition of engineered kinases, whose ATP-binding pockets were modified to accommodate bulky kinase-inhibitor analogues, such as NA-PP1, that were specifically designed for such modified kinases (Bishop et al., 1998
).
We created an analogue-sensitive Don3 kinase (Don3-as), which was fully active in vivo and could specifically inhibited by low concentrations of NA-PP1. We used this modified kinase to demonstrate that Don3 and Cdc42 act independently from each other during cytokinesis and that Don3 activity precedes that of Cdc42. In addition, we demonstrate that Don3 and Cdc42 are required for assembly of a contractile actomyosin ring as monitored by Cdc15-GFP accumulation. We propose that the GC-kinase Don3 phosphorylates a yet-unknown landmark protein, whose phosphorylation is prerequisite for Cdc42 triggered actomyosin-ring formation.
Results and Discussion
To study the molecular function of the Ste20-like kinase Don3 during cytokinesis, we used chemical genetics (Shah et al., 1997
). On the basis of sequence alignments of Don3 with other kinases, we identified the amino acid methionine at position 157 (M157) in the catalytic domain as the putative `gatekeeper' of the ATP-binding pocket (Fig. 1A) (Knight and Shokat, 2007
; Zhang et al., 2005
). We substituted this amino acid for either glycine (M157G) or alanine (M157A) by site-directed mutagenesis. The resulting kinases Don3M157G and Don3M157A, respectively, were tested for complementation of the cell separation defect of U. maydis don3 mutant strains. To this end, the corresponding open reading frames were expressed in Don3 mutants under control of the arabinose-inducible crg-promoter (Fig. 1B, Pcrg) (Bottin et al., 1996
). Upon induction, only wild type Don3 and the modified kinase Don3M157A were able to trigger cell separation in these cells (Fig. 1C). Thus, substitution of methionine with the small amino acid glycine obviously interfered with kinase activity because Don3M157G was unable to complement the Don3– phenotype (Fig. 1C). Similar results have been obtained also for other kinases, such as the yeast Ste20-like kinase Cla4p, for which only the exchange of M with A was compatible with kinase activity (Weiss et al., 2000
).
|
|
Although Don3 belongs to the GCK subfamily of Ste20-like kinases that lack a CRIB domain, epistasis analysis and yeast two-hybrid-studies suggested that its activity depends on its interaction with Cdc42 (Mahlert et al., 2006
; Weinzierl et al., 2002
). Accordingly, U. maydis don3 mutants display a cell-separation defect indistinguishable from that of cdc42 mutant strains (Mahlert et al., 2006
). To study this potential functional interaction between Don3 and Cdc42, we introduced the analogue-sensitive Don3-as kinase into the conditional Pcrg::cdc42 mutant strain, in which the promoter of the cdc42 gene had been replaced by the arabinose-inducible Pcrg-promoter (Mahlert et al., 2006
), resulting in strain CB46. In this strain, both the kinase activity of Don3-as and the expression levels of Cdc42 can be regulated independently from each other. CB46 cells were grown in glucose-containing medium and displayed a cell separation defect due to the absence of Cdc42 (Fig. 3A) (Mahlert et al., 2006
). At time point 0 we labelled the cell clusters with NHS-LC-biotin. Immediately afterwards the kinase activity of Don3-as was blocked by addition of NA-PP1 (Fig. 3A). Expression of Cdc42 was induced 90 minutes after inhibition of Don3-as by transferring cells into medium containing NA-PP1 and arabinose. This sequential inactivation of Don3 and activation of Cdc42 was performed to ensure that a functional interaction between these two proteins was impossible. Upon increasing expression of Cdc42, the cell clusters gradually disintegrated into single labelled cells. In these cells cytokinesis was obviously completed by Cdc42, although Don3 kinase activity was inhibited by NA-PP1. Intriguingly, the released cells again showed a cytokinesis defect and formed new clusters, in which only the `founder mother cells' were labelled (Fig. 3A, 10 hours). This indicates that, after inhibition of Don3 activity, Cdc42 can trigger only a single round of cytokinesis. Interestingly, if this experiment was performed in reversed order, the release of Don3-as from NA-PP1 inhibition was not sufficient to restore cytokinesis in the absence of Cdc42 (data not shown). Therefore, we assume that Don3 phosphorylates a yet-unknown target that may act as landmark protein. Such a putative landmark protein could then serve as a platform for Cdc42-triggered initiation of the secondary septum. Although we observe accumulation of fluorescently labelled Don1 protein at the site of septum formation (data not shown), it can be excluded that Don1 itself serves as landmark protein because the cell separation defect of don1 deletion mutants can be fully rescued by expressing a constitutively active variant of Cdc42 (Mahlert et al., 2006
). This indicates that the presence of Don1 is not required for correct septation.
|
don3 cells. In dividing wild-type cells GFP-Cdc42 shows membrane association and accumulates at the vacuolar membrane, and at both the primary and the secondary septum (Fig. 3B, upper panel). In
don3 and
don1 cells vacuolar membrane targeting was not affected, but GFP-Cdc42 is detectable only at the primary septum (Fig. 3B and magnification). Since don3 mutants cannot be rescued by expressing constitutive active Cdc42, we assume that recruitment or activation of potential Cdc42 targets, e.g. the septins to the site of septation, depends on the activity of Don3. This is in accordance with our observation that localisation of GFP-Don3 at the site of septum formation is independent of both Cdc42 and Don1 (Fig. 3B, lower panel).
In fungi, septation requires the assembly of a contractile actomyosin ring. To follow the dynamics of this ring formation we expressed a Cdc15-GFP fusion protein in don3-as cells. The U. maydis Cdc15 protein (MUMDB entry number um00168) is highly similar to the S. pombe septation protein Cdc15, which coordinates the assembly of the cytokinetic contractile ring in fission yeast (Aspenström et al., 2006
). During division of U. maydis wild-type cells, Cdc15-GFP is visible in a ring-like structure at the neck of the mother-bud (Fig. 4A,K and 4B,L) and disappeared after completion of the first septum (Fig. 4C,H,M). Intriguingly, shortly afterwards Cdc15-GFP reappeared as a ring-like structure at the daughter side of the primary septum (Fig. 4D,I,N) and vanished again after completion of the secondary septum (Fig. 4E,J,O). Thus, cytokinesis in U. maydis involves the sequential formation of two independent cytokinetic contractile rings. In don3-as cells treated with NA-PP1, Cdc15-GFP was detectable only in emerging bud cells during assembly of the first septum (Fig. 4P,S; arrows). Upon inhibitor release, instantaneous accumulation of Cdc15-GFP-labelled actomyosin rings could be detected within 10 minutes in all cells of the cluster (Fig. 4Q,T; magnifications). This indicates that Don3 triggers the initiation of a cytokinetic actomyosin ring only during secondary septum formation but not during primary septum formation. Therefore, we propose that phosphorylation by Don3 renders a pre-assembled landmark protein active and, thus, provides the positional information at which formation of the contractile actomyosin ring is triggered by activated Cdc42. To test this hypothesis, we studied the assembly of the Cdc15 ring depending on the presence or absence of Cdc42. To this aim we followed Cdc15-GFP localization in conditional cdc42 mutant cells. Cells in which expression of cdc42 is repressed by glucose, Cdc15-GFP was detected only during the assembly of the primary septum (not shown, but similar to results shown in Fig. 4P). Upon induction of cdc42, accumulation of Cdc15-GFP at the site of secondary septum formation was visible within 80 minutes (Fig. 4R,U; magnifications). That actomyosin ring formation is significantly delayed compared with inhibitor release, is probably owing to the fact that Cdc42 has first to be transcribed and translated. Together, these data indicate that both active Don3 kinase and Cdc42 are required to trigger Cdc15 assembly.
|
Materials and Methods
Strains
The Escherichia coli strain DH5
was used for cloning and amplification of plasmid DNA. The U. maydis strain Bub8 (Schulz et al., 1990
) was used as wild-type background for all strains created in this manuscript. Bub8
don3 has been described previously (Weinzierl et al., 2002
).
Transformation
In general, transformation of U. maydis was performed as described previously (Schulz et al., 1990
). For expression studies, constructs expressing Don3, Don3M157A and Don3M157G under tcontrol of the crg-promoter were integrated into the cbx-locus by homologous recombination (Loubradou et al., 2001
).
Mutagenesis
The analogue-sensitive mutants Don3M157A and Don3M157G were generated by PCR using a two-step mutagenesis protocol. The ATG codon (Met) at nucleotide position 469-471 was replaced with GCT (Ala) or GGG (Gly) in Don3M157A or Don3M157G, respectively. Sequences of the primers are available upon request.
Plasmid construction
For overexpression in U. maydis the open reading frames of Don3, Don3M157A and Don3M157G were amplified and cloned into the NdeI- and NotI-sites of pCRG-GFP-MXN, which is derived from p123 and contains the carbon-source-regulated crg-promoter (Bottin et al., 1996
). For GFP-fusion, the ORFs of Don3 and Cdc42 were amplified and cloned in the MluI- and NotI-sites of pETEF-GFP-MXN, which is derived from p123. All constructs were confirmed by sequencing. Sequences of the primers and plasmids are available upon request.
Generation of strains
A bipartite resistance cassette (Sandrock et al., 2006
) was used to generate U. maydis strains expressing Don3M157A under control of the native promoter. To this end, the entire ORF containing the corresponding M157A-mutations was amplified by PCR using primers that introduce a characteristic SfiI-site and used as one of the flanking regions for homologous recombination. Correct integration was tested by PCR and sequencing. For Cdc15-GFP expression from the endogenous cdc15 promoter a linear fragment composed of the cdc15 ORF (um00168), the GFP-NAT resistance cassette and the cdc15 3' flanking region was used for homologous recombination in the don3-as strain following the protocol described previously (Brachmann et al., 2004
). The strain CB46 was derived from the don3-as strain and contains additionally the ORF of the cdc42 gene under the control of the crg-promoter generated by homologous recombination using the PCR protocol of published previously (Kämper, 2004
). Primer sequences will be supplied by the corresponding author (B.S.) on request.
Specific inhibition of Don3 kinase activity
The activity of the engineered kinase Don3M157A was inhibited by addition of the indicated amounts of NA-PP1 (Calbiochem). Inhibition of Don3M157A in logarithmically growing cells blocked cell separation immediately.
Survival test
don3-as and
don3 cells were grown in 3 ml YEPS overnight in the presence of 1 µM NA-PP1. Cells were diluted to an OD600 of 0.5 and then stepwise 1:5. Of the cells suspension, 5 µl were spotted on PD-plates (Bottin et al., 1996
) and incubated for 3 days.
Biotin labelling of cell surfaces
For cell-surface biotinylation 5x106 cells from a logarithmically growing culture were collected and washed twice in six volumes of KP buffer (50 mM K3PO4, pH 8.0). Cells were then incubated for 10 minutes in 1 ml KP plus 1.0 mg/ml NHC-LS-biotin at RT. Cells were washed twice in six volumes of TM (50 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.5 plus 50 mM MgCl2) and once in six volumes KP buffer. Cells were either analysed by ExtrAvidin®-TRITC staining or further grown in fresh medium for the indicated time points.
ExtrAvidin®-TRITC staining
5x106 cells were washed twice in six volumes H2O, resuspended and incubated with 1 µl ExtrAvidin-TRITC (Sigma E3011) for 10 minutes. Cells were then washed twice in 1 ml H2O and resuspended in fresh medium.
Microscopy
Ustilago maydis cells from logarithmically growing cultures were analysed. Cells were visualised by differential interference contrast (DIC) and epifluorescence microscopy using a Zeiss Axiophot microscope. Calcofluor White staining was performed as described previously (Pringle et al., 1989
). TRITC fluorescence of biotin-labelled cells were analysed using a Zeiss Axiophot microscope. Image processing was carried out using Photoshop (Adobe).
Acknowledgments
Many thanks to Kay Schink for the critical reading of the manuscript. C.B. is supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (GK1216).
Footnotes
Supplementary material available online at http://jcs.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/121/2/143/DC1
* Present address: University of California, San Diego, Division of Biological Sciences, Section of Cell and Developmental Biology, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0116, USA ![]()
References
Aspenström, P., Fransson, A. and Richnau, N. (2006). Pombe Cdc15 homology proteins: regulators of membrane dynamics and the actin cytoskeleton. Trends Biochem. Sci. 31, 670-679.[CrossRef][Medline]
Bähler, J. (2005). A transcriptional pathway for cell separation in fission yeast. Cell Cycle 4, 39-41.[Medline]
Bishop, A. C., Shah, K., Liu, Y., Witucki, L., Kung, C. and Shokat, K. M. (1998). Design of allele-specific inhibitors to probe protein kinase signaling. Curr. Biol. 8, 257-266.[CrossRef][Medline]
Bishop, A. C., Buzko, O. and Shokat, K. M. (2001). Magic bullets for protein kinases. Trends Cell Biol. 11, 167-172.[CrossRef][Medline]
Bottin, A., Kämper, J. and Kahmann, R. (1996). Isolation of a carbon source-regulated gene from Ustilago maydis. Mol. Gen. Genet. 253, 342-352.[Medline]
Boyce, K. J., Chang, H., D'Souza, C. A. and Kronstad, J. W. (2005). An Ustilago maydis septin is required for filamentous growth in culture and for full symptom development on maize. Eukaryotic Cell 4, 2044-2056.
Brachmann, A., König, J., Julius, C. and Feldbrügge, M. (2004). A reverse genetic approach for generating gene replacement mutants in Ustilago maydis. Mol. Genet. Genomics 272, 216-226.[Medline]
Burkard, M. E., Randall, C. L., Larochelle, S., Zhang, C., Shokat, K. M., Fisher, R. P. and Jallepalli, P. V. (2007). Chemical genetics reveals the requirement for Polo-like kinase 1 activity in positioning RhoA and triggering cytokinesis in human cells. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104, 4383-4388.
Dan, I., Watanabe, N. M. and Kusumi, A. (2001). The Ste20 group kinases as regulators of MAP kinase cascades. Trends Cell Biol. 11, 220-230.[CrossRef][Medline]
de Bettignies, G. and Johnston, L. H. (2003). The mitotic exit network. Curr. Biol. 13, R301.[CrossRef][Medline]
Dobbelaere, J. and Barral, Y. (2004). Spatial coordination of cytokinetic events by compartmentalization of the cell cortex. Science 305, 393-396.
Iwase, M., Luo, J., Nagaraj, S., Longtine, M., Kim, H. B., Haarer, B. K., Caruso, C., Tong, Z., Pringle, J. R. and Bi, E. (2006). Role of a Cdc42p effector pathway in recruitment of the yeast septins to the presumptive bud site. Mol. Biol. Cell 17, 1110-1125.
Kämper, J. (2004). A PCR-based system for highly efficient generation of gene replacement mutants in Ustilago maydis. Mol. Genet. Genomics 271, 103-110.[CrossRef][Medline]
Knight, Z. A. and Shokat, K. M. (2007). Chemical genetics: where genetics and pharmacology meet. Cell 128, 425-430.[CrossRef][Medline]
Krapp, A., Gulli, M. P. and Simanis, V. (2004). SIN and the art of splitting the fission yeast cell. Curr. Biol. 14, R722-R730.[CrossRef][Medline]
Leveleki, L., Mahlert, M., Sandrock, B. and Bölker, M. (2004). The PAK family kinase Cla4 is required for budding and morphogenesis in Ustilago maydis. Mol. Microbiol. 54, 396-406.[CrossRef][Medline]
Loubradou, G., Brachmann, A., Feldbrügge, M. and Kahmann, R. (2001). A homologue of the transcriptional repressor Ssn6p antagonizes cAMP signalling in Ustilago maydis. Mol. Microbiol. 40, 719-730.[CrossRef][Medline]
Mahlert, M., Leveleki, L., Hlubek, A., Sandrock, B. and Bölker, M. (2006). Rac1 and Cdc42 regulate hyphal growth and cytokinesis in the dimorphic fungus Ustilago maydis. Mol. Microbiol. 59, 567-578.[CrossRef][Medline]
Narumiya, S. and Yasuda, S. (2006). Rho GTPases in animal cell mitosis. Curr. Opin. Cell Biol. 18, 199-205.[CrossRef][Medline]
Pringle, J. R., Preston, R. A., Adams, A. E. M., Stearns, T. and Drubin, D. G. (1989). Fluorescence microscopy methods for yeast. Methods Cell Biol. 31, 357-435.[Medline]
Sandrock, B., Böhmer, C. and Bölker, M. (2006). Dual function of the germinal centre kinase Don3 during mitosis and cytokinesis in Ustilago maydis. Mol. Microbiol. 62, 655-666.[CrossRef][Medline]
Schulz, B., Banuett, F., Dahl, M., Schlesinger, R., Schäfer, W., Martin, T., Herskowitz, I. and Kahmann, R. (1990). The b alleles of U. maydis, whose combinations program pathogenic development, code for polypeptides containing a homeodomain-related motif. Cell 60, 295-306.[CrossRef][Medline]
Shah, K., Liu, Y., Deirmengian, C. and Shokat, K. M. (1997). Engineering unnatural nucleotide specificity for Rous sarcoma virus tyrosine kinase to uniquely label its direct substrates. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94, 3565-3570.
Simanis, V. (2003). The mitotic exit and septation initiation networks. J. Cell Sci. 116, 4261-4262.
Straube, A., Weber, I. and Steinberg, G. (2005). A novel mechanism of nuclear envelope break-down in a fungus: nuclear migration strips off the envelope. EMBO J. 24, 1674-1685.[CrossRef][Medline]
Ventura, J. J., Hubner, A., Zhang, C., Flavell, R. A., Shokat, K. M. and Davis, R. J. (2006). Chemical genetic analysis of the time course of signal transduction by JNK. Mol. Cell 21, 701-710.[CrossRef][Medline]
Versele, M. and Thorner, J. (2004). Septin collar formation in budding yeast requires GTP binding and direct phosphorylation by the PAK, Cla4. J. Cell Biol. 164, 701-715.
Wachtler, V., Huang, Y., Karagiannis, J. and Balasubramanian, M. K. (2006). Cell cycle-dependent roles for the FCH-domain protein Cdc15p in formation of the actomyosin ring in Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Mol. Biol. Cell 17, 3254-3266.
Walther, A. and Wendland, J. (2003). Septation and cytokinesis in fungi. Fungal Genet. Biol. 40, 187-196.[CrossRef][Medline]
Weinzierl, G., Leveleki, L., Hassel, A., Kost, G., Wanner, G. and Bölker, M. (2002). Regulation of cell separation in the dimorphic fungus Ustilago maydis. Mol. Microbiol. 45, 219-231.[CrossRef][Medline]
Weiss, E. L., Bishop, A. C., Shokat, K. M. and Drubin, D. G. (2000). Chemical genetic analysis of the budding-yeast p21-activated kinase Cla4p. Nat. Cell Biol. 2, 677-685.[CrossRef][Medline]
Zhang, C., Kenski, D. M., Paulson, J. L., Bonshtien, A., Sessa, G., Cross, J. V., Templeton, D. J. and Shokat, K. M. (2005). A second-site suppressor strategy for chemical genetic analysis of diverse protein kinases. Nat. Methods 2, 435-441.[CrossRef][Medline]
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||