FISSION YEAST GENES INVOLVED IN COUPLING MITOSIS TO COMPLETION OF DNA-REPLICATION

We have isolated fission yeast mutants that enter mitosis when DNA replication is blocked with hydroxyurea. The mutants define eight linkage groups, three of which consist of alleles of the rad1, rad3, and rad17 genes. Recently, these fission yeast genes have been shown to be required for radiation-induced cell cycle arrest, as is the budding yeast RAD9 gene. The other five genes are called hus (hydroxyurea sensitive) 1-5. We propose that these genes participate in an intracellular signal transduction pathway that monitors the completion of DNA replication and transmits information to the mitotic control protein cdc2. Mutations that bypass the requirement for cdc25 (an activator of the mitotic regulator cdc2) also uncouple mitosis from DNA replication. However, mitosis is blocked by inhibitors of DNA replication in strains in which the cdc25 gene has been deleted, indicating that although cdc25 influences the coupling of mitosis to the completion of DNA replication, it is not essential for this control.