Fatty Acids Essential to Mitosis?

Article Title: Aberrant mitosis in fission yeast mutants defective in fatty acid synthetase and acetyl CoA carboxylase.

Article Author(s): S Saitoh, K Takahashi, K Nabeshima, Y Yamashita, Y Nakaseko, A Hirata, M Yanagida

Article Date: August 15, 1996

Article Link: http://jcb.rupress.org/content/134/4/949.abstract

Summary: Two yeast mutants that are highly sensitive to temperature known as cut6 and lsd1 both displayed a defect in the nuclear division process. The researchers observed that the two resulting daughter cells' nuclei differed dramatically in size, which is not supposed to happen in a normal cell division process. After further investigation of the two daughter cells, it was discovered that the sister chromatids did separate in the mutant lsd cells, but only condensed in one of the two daughter cells' nuclei. Additional, they observed "unequal separation of nonchromosonal nuclear structures" in the daughter cells. The cut6+ and lsd1+ genes are two essential genes that encode acetyl CoA carboxylase and fatty acid synthetase, which are the two key enzymes for fatty acid synthesis. The disruption of the gene lsd1+ leads to the creation of the lsd phenotype. An inhibitor of fatty acid synthesis known as Cerulenin actually naturally produced the lsd phenotype in the wild. This drug caused cells to die during cell mitosis. After observing all this, scientists concluded that "a reduced level of fatty acid thus led to impaired separation of non-chromosonal nuclear components." With this in mind, scientists concluded that fatty acids are responsible for the equal separation of the mother nucleus into the two daughter cells.