View the Current Issue

Article

  • The EMBO Journal (2008) 27, 111 - 121
  • doi:10.1038/sj.emboj.7601955

Published online: 13 December 2007

Cell-cycle regulation of cohesin stability along fission yeast chromosomes

Pascal Bernard1,4, Christine Katrin Schmidt2,4, Sabine Vaur1,4, Sonia Dheur1, Julie Drogat1, Sylvie Genier1, Karl Ekwall3, Frank Uhlmann2 and Jean-Paul Javerzat1

  1. Université Bordeaux 2, CNRS Institut de Biochimie et Génétique Cellulaires, Bordeaux, France
  2. Chromosome Segregation Laboratory, Cancer Research UK, London Research Institute, London, UK
  3. Department of Biosciences and Medical Nutrition, School of Life Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, University College Sodertorn, Huddinge, Sweden

Correspondence to:

Jean-Paul Javerzat, Institut de Biochimie et Génétique Cellulaires, CNRS UMR 5095, Université Victor Segalen Bordeaux 2, Bordeaux 33077, France. Tel.: +33 556 99 90 26; Fax: +33 556 90 90 67; E-mail: javerzat@ibgc.u-bordeaux2.fr

4These authors contributed equally to this work

Received 9 July 2007; Accepted 16 November 2007

Sister chromatid cohesion is mediated by cohesin, but the process of cohesion establishment during S-phase is still enigmatic. In mammalian cells, cohesin binding to chromatin is dynamic in G1, but becomes stabilized during S-phase. Whether the regulation of cohesin stability is integral to the process of cohesion establishment is unknown. Here, we provide evidence that fission yeast cohesin also displays dynamic behavior. Cohesin association with G1 chromosomes requires continued activity of the cohesin loader Mis4/Ssl3, suggesting that repeated loading cycles maintain cohesin binding. Cohesin instability in G1 depends on wpl1, the fission yeast ortholog of mammalian Wapl, suggestive of a conserved mechanism that controls cohesin stability on chromosomes. wpl1 is nonessential, indicating that a change in wpl1-dependent cohesin dynamics is dispensable for cohesion establishment. Instead, we find that cohesin stability increases at the time of S-phase in a reaction that can be uncoupled from DNA replication. Hence, cohesin stabilization might be a pre-requisite for cohesion establishment rather than its consequence.

  • Keywords:

    • chromosome segregation,
    • cohesin,
    • Mis4/Ssl3,
    • Schizosaccharomyces pombe,
    • Wapl