The Schizosaccharomyces pombe syntaxin 1 homolog, Psy1, is essential in the development of the forespore membrane.

Syntaxin is a component of t-soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptor (SNARE), which is responsible for docking membrane vesicles at the target membrane and is highly conserved among eukaryotes. In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, the psy1(+) gene encoding a syntaxin 1 homolog was originally isolated as a multicopy suppressor of the sporulation-deficient mutant, spo3, but little is known about the way Psy1 is involved in sporulation. Here we report the isolation of a sporulation-defective mutant, psy1-S1, generated by random PCR mutagenesis. psy1-S1 also exhibited temperature sensitivity in growth. In psy1-S1 cells, assembly of the forespore membrane (FSM) initiated near the spindle pole bodies during meiosis II, but subsequent expansion of the membrane was severely impaired. Overproduction of the cognate SNARE proteins, Syb1 and Sec9, suppressed both the temperature sensitivity and sporulation defects of psy1-S1. These results indicate that Psy1 plays an essential role in FSM formation coordinated by Syb1 and Sec9.

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