PREFERENTIAL OCCURRENCE OF NONSISTER SPORES IN TWO-SPORED ASCI OF SACCHAROMYCES CEREVISIAE: EVIDENCE FOR REGULATION OF SPORE-WALL FORMATION BY THE SPINDLE POLE BODY

Lance S. Davidow ¹, Loretta Goetsch ¹, and Breck Byers ¹

¹ Department of Genetics, SK-50, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195

Yeast cells subjected to a reversible thermal arrest of meiosis yielded progressively fewer spores per ascus as the arrest was extended. Dissection of two-spored asci by a newly developed method that prevents selection of false asci revealed that the spores were not a random sample of the haploid meiotic products. Most, if not all, pairs of spores contain nonsister products of the reductional division. Electron microscopic examination of the meiotic cells revealed the cytological basis for this bias. All four spindle pole bodies (SPBs) present at the second meiotic division normally gain a structural modification (the outer plaque) upon which the initiation of the prospore wall occurs. In the formation of a two-spored ascus, only one spindle pole body on each meiosis II spindle was so modified. These observations suggest that the morphogenesis of spores is regulated at meiosis II by limiting the number of SPBs gaining the outer plaque. The enhancement of spore yield upon addition of fresh medium suggests that this morphogenetic regulation responds more directly to nutrient deprivation arising during the thermal arrest, rather than to elevated temperature per se.

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