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PMID: 16582011 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

Arabidopsis separase AESP is essential for embryo development and the release of cohesin during meiosis.

The Plant cell ·Vol. 18 ·No. 5 ·2006-05-00 ·Pages 1213-25

Liu Z, Makaroff CA

Abstract

To investigate how and when sister chromatid cohesion is released from chromosomes in plants, we isolated the Arabidopsis thaliana homolog of separase (AESP) and investigated its role in somatic and meiotic cells. AESP is similar to separase proteins identified in other organisms but contains several additional structural motifs. The characterization of two Arabidopsis T-DNA insertion alleles for AESP demonstrated that it is an essential gene. Seeds homozygous for T-DNA insertions in AESP exhibited embryo arrest at the globular stage. The endosperm also exhibited a weak titan-like phenotype. Transgenic plants expressing AESP RNA interference (RNAi) from the meiosis-specific DMC1 promoter exhibited alterations in chromosome segregation during meiosis I and II that resulted in polyads containing from one to eight microspores. Consistent with its predicted role in the release of sister chromatid cohesion, immunolocalization studies showed that the removal of SYN1 from chromosome arms and the centromeres is inhibited in the RNAi mutants. However, the release of SYN1 during diplotene occurred normally, indicating that this process is independent of AESP. Therefore, our results demonstrate that AESP plays an essential role in embryo development and provide direct evidence that AESP is required for the removal of cohesin from meiotic chromosomes.

MeSH Terms
Amino Acid Motifs Amino Acid Sequence Arabidopsis/embryology,enzymology,genetics Arabidopsis Proteins/chemistry,genetics,metabolism,physiology Cell Cycle Proteins/chemistry,genetics,metabolism,physiology Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone/metabolism Chromosome Segregation/physiology Endopeptidases/chemistry,genetics,physiology Fertility Meiosis/physiology Molecular Sequence Data Nuclear Proteins/metabolism Plants, Genetically Modified/growth & development,metabolism Promoter Regions, Genetic Protein Structure, Tertiary RNA Interference RNA, Messenger/metabolism Seeds/cytology,growth & development Separase Sequence Alignment
Chemicals
Arabidopsis Proteins Cell Cycle Proteins Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone Nuclear Proteins RNA, Messenger SYN1 protein, Arabidopsis cohesins Endopeptidases AESP protein, Arabidopsis Separase
Authors & Affiliations
2 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Liu Zhe
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056, USA.
Makaroff Christopher A
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Article Info
Journal
The Plant cell
Abbr.
Plant Cell
ISSN
1040-4651
DOI
10.1105/tpc.105.036913
Published
2006-05-00
Epub
2006-00-31
Pages
1213-25
Language
English
Region
England
NLM ID
9208688
PMCID
PMC1456861
Subset
IM
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1105/tpc.105.036913 PMC Full Text View journal details
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