Published 13 March 2006. doi:10.1083/jcb.200511126
The Rockefeller University Press, 0021-9525 $8.00
JCB, Volume 172, Number 6, 835-846
The selective continued linkage of centromeres from mitosis to interphase in the absence of mammalian separase
Kazuki Kumada1,
Ryoji Yao1,
Tokuichi Kawaguchi1,
Mika Karasawa1,
Yutaka Hoshikawa1,
Koji Ichikawa1,
Yoshinobu Sugitani1,
Issei Imoto2,
Johji Inazawa2,
Minoru Sugawara3,
Mitsuhiro Yanagida4, and
Tetsuo Noda1,3
1 Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research, Cancer Institute, Tokyo 135-8550, Japan
2 Medical Research Institute, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo 113-8510, Japan
3 Center for Translational and Advanced Animal Research, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai 980-8575, Japan
4 Department of Gene Mechanisms, Graduate School of Biostudies, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan
Correspondence to Tetsuo Noda: tnoda{at}jfcr.or.jp
Separase is an evolutionarily conserved protease that is essential for chromosome segregation and cleaves cohesin Scc1/Rad21, which joins the sister chromatids together. Although mammalian separase also functions in chromosome segregation, our understanding of this process in mammals is still incomplete. We generated separase knockout mice, reporting an essential function for mammalian separase. Separase-deficient mouse embryonic fibroblasts exhibited severely restrained increases in cell number, polyploid chromosomes, and amplified centrosomes. Chromosome spreads demonstrated that multiple chromosomes connected to a centromeric region. Live observation demonstrated that the chromosomes of separase-deficient cells condensed, but failed to segregate, although subsequent cytokinesis and chromosome decondensation proceeded normally. These results establish that mammalian separase is essential for the separation of centromeres, but not of the arm regions of chromosomes. Other cell cycle events, such as mitotic exit, DNA replication, and centrosome duplication appear to occur normally. We also demonstrated that heterozygous separase-deficient cells exhibited severely restrained increases in cell number with apparently normal mitosis in the absence of securin, which is an inhibitory partner of separase.
Abbreviations used in this paper: E, embryonic day; ES, embryonic stem; LSC, laser scanning cytometry; MEF, mouse embryonic fibroblast; MOI, multiplicity of infection; SKY, spectral karyotyping.

CiteULike
Complore
Connotea
Del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
Technorati What's this?
Related Article
-
Exit without separase
- Rabiya S. Tuma
J. Cell Biol. 2006 172: 785b.
[Full Text]
[PDF]
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Meyer, R., Fofanov, V., Panigrahi, AnilK., Merchant, F., Zhang, N., Pati, D.
(2009). Overexpression and Mislocalization of the Chromosomal Segregation Protein Separase in Multiple Human Cancers. Clin. Cancer Res.
15: 2703-2710
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Huang, X., Andreu-Vieyra, C. V., Wang, M., Cooney, A. J., Matzuk, M. M., Zhang, P.
(2009). Preimplantation Mouse Embryos Depend on Inhibitory Phosphorylation of Separase To Prevent Chromosome Missegregation. Mol. Cell. Biol.
29: 1498-1505
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Sun, Q.-Y., Liu, K., Kikuchi, K.
(2008). Oocyte-Specific Knockout: A Novel In Vivo Approach for Studying Gene Functions During Folliculogenesis, Oocyte Maturation, Fertilization, and Embryogenesis. Biol. Reprod.
79: 1014-1020
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Peters, J.-M., Tedeschi, A., Schmitz, J.
(2008). The cohesin complex and its roles in chromosome biology. Genes Dev.
22: 3089-3114
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Zhang, N., Ge, G., Meyer, R., Sethi, S., Basu, D., Pradhan, S., Zhao, Y.-J., Li, X.-N., Cai, W.-W., El-Naggar, A. K., Baladandayuthapani, V., Kittrell, F. S., Rao, P. H., Medina, D., Pati, D.
(2008). Overexpression of Separase induces aneuploidy and mammary tumorigenesis. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
105: 13033-13038
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Okumura, A. J., Peterson, L. F., Okumura, F., Boyapati, A., Zhang, D.-E.
(2008). t(8;21)(q22;q22) fusion proteins preferentially bind to duplicated AML1/RUNX1 DNA-binding sequences to differentially regulate gene expression. Blood
112: 1392-1401
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Boos, D., Kuffer, C., Lenobel, R., Korner, R., Stemmann, O.
(2008). Phosphorylation-dependent Binding of Cyclin B1 to a Cdc6-like Domain of Human Separase. J. Biol. Chem.
283: 816-823
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Zaccarini, R., Cordelieres, F. P., Martin, P., Saule, S.
(2007). PAX6 P46 Binds Chromosomes in the Pericentromeric Region and Induces a Mitosis Defect When Overexpressed. IOVS
48: 5408-5419
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Nakajima, M., Kumada, K., Hatakeyama, K., Noda, T., Peters, J.-M., Hirota, T.
(2007). The complete removal of cohesin from chromosome arms depends on separase. J. Cell Sci.
120: 4188-4196
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Holland, A. J., Bottger, F., Stemmann, O., Taylor, S. S.
(2007). Protein Phosphatase 2A and Separase Form a Complex Regulated by Separase Autocleavage. J. Biol. Chem.
282: 24623-24632
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Guacci, V.
(2007). Sister chromatid cohesion: the cohesin cleavage model does not ring true. GENES CELLS
12: 693-708
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Shepard, J. L., Amatruda, J. F., Finkelstein, D., Ziai, J., Finley, K. R., Stern, H. M., Chiang, K., Hersey, C., Barut, B., Freeman, J. L., Lee, C., Glickman, J. N., Kutok, J. L., Aster, J. C., Zon, L. I.
(2007). A mutation in separase causes genome instability and increased susceptibility to epithelial cancer. Genes Dev.
21: 55-59
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Holland, A. J., Taylor, S. S.
(2006). Cyclin-B1-mediated inhibition of excess separase is required for timely chromosome disjunction. J. Cell Sci.
119: 3325-3336
[Abstract]
[Full Text]