Ecm11 protein of yeastSaccharomyces cerevisiaeis regulated by sumoylation during meiosis

Abstract

Damaged regulation of the small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) system contributes to some human diseases; therefore, it is very important to identify the SUMO targets and to determine the function of their sumoylation. In this study, it is shown that Ecm11 protein in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is modified by SUMO during meiosis. It is known that Ecm11 is required in the early stages of yeast meiosis where its function is related to DNA replication and crossing over. Here it is shown that the level of Ecm11 protein is low in mitosis, but high in meiosis. The highest level of Ecm11 is in the early-middle phase of sporulation. A specific site of sumoylation was identified in Ecm11 at Lys5 and evidence is provided that sumoylation at this site directly regulates Ecm11 function in meiosis. On the other hand, no relationship was observed between sumoylation of Ecm11 and its role during vegetative growth. It was shown that Ecm11 interacts with Siz2 SUMO ligase in a two-hybrid system; although Siz2 is not essential for the Ecm11 sumoylation.

The Relationship Between Replication and Recombination

“…From the microarray hybridization data available in the Stanford Genome Database (SGD; http://www.yeastgenome.org/), it is apparent that the ECM11 transcript does not oscillate during the cell cycle, but is significantly elevated during meiosis. It was confirmed that the level of protein Ecm11 is in accordance with the mRNA: the level of Ecm11 protein is low in mitosis, but high in meiosis (Zavec et al, 2008). The highest level of Ecm11 is in the earlymiddle phase of sporulation.…”

“…The Ecm11 protein has two lysine residues, K5 and K101, with a corresponding surrounding sequence IKTE that could accept SUMO. It was confirmed by immunoprecipitation that Ecm11 is sumoylated during meiosis and that Ecm11 interacts with SUMO covalently (Zavec et al, 2008). The majority of Ecm11 protein in the cell is sumoylated during meiosis.…”

“…The importance of Ecm11 sumoylation for progression through meiosis was investigated by studying the effect of mutations of predicted SUMO consensus sites in Ecm11 on sporulation efficiency (Zavec et al, 2008). Lysines K5 and K101 in the predicted SUMO consensus sites were mutated to the uncharged amino acid asparagine.…”

Recombination, Pairing, and Synapsis of Homologs during Meiosis

“…Second, SUMO-1, one of the four members of SUMO family, colocalizes with the SC only at synapsed regions; moreover, both lateral and central components are SUMOylated in human cells (Brown et al 2008). Third, Ecm11, a member of the SC central region of budding yeast, is SUMOylated, and this modification is important for the assembly of the Zip1 traverse filaments along homologs but is dispensable for their assembly into polycomplexes, suggesting a specific role in promoting chromosome-associated SC polymerization (Zavec et al 2008;Humphryes et al 2013). However, the precise role of SUMO for SC formation remains to be defined (see discussion in Watts and Hoffmann 2011).…”

Wrestling with Chromosomes: The Roles of SUMO During Meiosis

“…Therefore, it appears that sumoylation is important both in the early stages of chromosome pairing/homology sorting and later on in the assembly of the mature SC Nottke et al Page 14 The proteins are subdivided into functional categories of DSBR (Double-strand break repair), Structural and Chromosome Segregation, and Transcriptional based on published literature. Identification of sumoylation and description of meiotic roles are consolidated from the Saccharomyces Genome Database (SGD) and the following primary sources: (Branzei et al 2006;Cheng et al 2006;Denison et al 2005;Hannich et al 2005;Panse et al 2004;Sacher et al 2006;Zavec et al 2008) …”