Analysis of cell cycle surveillance mechanisms in meiosis

Numerous DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) are introduced into the genome in the course of meiotic recombination. This poses a significant hazard to the genomic integrity of the cell. Studies in a number of organisms have unveiled the existence of surveillance mechanisms or checkpoints that couple DNA repair and microtubule integrity to meiotic cell cycle progression. Through their action, aberrant meiocytes are delayed in their meiotic progression to facilitate repair of meiotic DSBs, or are culled through programmed cell death, thereby protecting the germline from aneuploidies that could lead to spontaneous abortions, birth defects and cancer predisposition in the offspring. Two such surveillance mechanisms are analyzed in this thesis. The first is the meiotic recombination checkpoint, which delays meiotic cells in G2/prophase if recombination intermediates remain unrepaired. The extent of the delay is modulated by protein phosphatase 1 (PP1), whose activity allows cells to overcome the checkpoint dependent delay in a process called adaptation. In this work, experiments in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae are described that show that premature adaptation is prevented by the FK506-binding protein Fpr3, which associates with and counteracts PP1 in vivo.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Biology.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Hochwagen, Andreas

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Angelika Amon.

• Biology.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/33214

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/33214