Generation and characterization of a temperature-sensitive mutant allele of the second largest subunit of RNA polymerase I in Schizosaccharomyces pombe

Kazuki Ishida; Katsunori Tanaka; Kei Kawakami

doi:10.17912/micropub.biology.000586

Generation and characterization of a temperature-sensitive mutant allele of the second largest subunit of RNA polymerase I in Schizosaccharomyces pombe

MicroPubl Biol. 2022 Jun 10:2022:10.17912/micropub.biology.000586. doi: 10.17912/micropub.biology.000586. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Kazuki Ishida¹, Katsunori Tanaka^{1

2}, Kei Kawakami^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Bioscience, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Kwansei Gakuin University, Sanda, Hyogo, Japan.
² Department of Biosciences, School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Kwansei Gakuin University, Sanda, Hyogo, Japan.

Abstract

RNA polymerase I (Pol I) is a highly conserved complex that catalyzes the transcription of rRNA precursors in the nucleolus. In this study, we isolated a temperature-sensitive (ts) allele of Rpa2, the second largest subunit of Pol I in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe . We found that rpa2 ^ts cells were severely defective in growth at temperatures above 32 °C. We also found that rpa2 ^ts cells showed aberrant chromosome segregation and an abnormal ring-like nuclear structure at the restrictive temperature. These findings suggest that Rpa2 is essential for faithful nuclear division and nuclear structural organization in S. pombe .