Generation of temperature sensitive mutants for the genetic study of the fission yeast spindle pole body

Abstract

The spindle pole body (SPB) in fungi is the equivalent of the animal centrosome. A number of previous studies have identified many, if not all, components of the SPB. The SPB is the structural platform for microtubule nucleation and plays important roles both in mitosis and meiosis. The SPB is absolutely essential for cell survival and its abnormalities give rise to aberrant cell division and morphogenesis. Therefore, it is crucial to understand how the SPB organises itself and how the functions of individual SPB components are regulated. We report here a procedure to generate temperature sensitive mutants in the fission yeast, Schizosaccharomyces pombe. The approach has proved useful to characterise functions of the SPB components. This original genetic manipulation is however not restricted to analysis of SPB functions, and can be suited to investigate other cellular processes in S. pombe.