High impact information on mei2

• Ste11 protein regulates positively transcription of the following genes required for sexual development: the mating type genes, matP and matM, and the mei2 gene, which is essential for commitment to meiosis [1].
• Recent experiments have shown that the inactivation of a protein kinase, pat1, and the activation of an RNA-binding protein, mei2, commit fission yeast cells to enter meiosis [2].
• The complete nucleotide sequence of the mei2 gene of Schizosaccharomyces pombe, which is essential for initiation of meiosis, is presented and four transcriptional start sites assigned [3].
• Under nutritionally sufficient conditions, overexpression of Stm1 inhibited vegetative cell growth, resulted in decreased intracellular cAMP levels, increased the expression of the meiosis-specific genes ste11, mei2, and mam2, and facilitated sexual development in homothallic cells [4].
• In wild-type cells, nitrogen starvation leads to mei2 induction through a fall in intracellular cyclic AMP (cAMP) level and activity of the cAMP-dependent protein kinase [5].

Biological context of mei2

• The Schizosaccharomyces pombe Mei2 gene encodes an RNA recognition motif (RRM) protein that stimulates meiosis upon binding a specific non-coding RNA and subsequent accumulation in a "mei2-dot" in the nucleus [6].
• Phenotypic analyses of lines that contain T-DNA insertions to individual mei2 -like genes reveal no obvious phenotypes, further suggesting redundant activities for these gene products [7].
• We found that a cumulative deletion of mei2(+) gene almost completely suppressed this defect, and demonstrated using two-hybrid analysis that Rad24 protein directly associates with Mei2 protein by recognizing Ser-438 which is a phosphorylation target of Pat1 kinase [8].
• We have isolated a hybrid plasmid, pDB(mei2)2, containing a 7.4-kilobases (kb) DNA fragment from a Schizosaccharomyces pombe genomic library which is able to complement the mei2 mutation of S. pombe [9].
• Gene mei2 was located on chromosome I 14.2 cM distant from ura2 [10].

Anatomical context of mei2

• Zygotes of either mei1, mei2 or mei3 mutants contained one round nucleus with a single spindle pole body (SPB) [10].

Other interactions of mei2

• The mei2 gene encoding a positive regulator for meiosis was normally transcribed in the map1 mutant, suggesting that the map1 function was specific to mat1-Pi [11].

References