The budding yeast Cdc15 localizes to the spindle pole body in a cell-cycle-dependent manner

Exit from mitosis in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae cell cycle is regulated by a regulatory network that involves, among other proteins, the small GTPase Tem1, the protein phosphatase Cdc14, and the protein kinases Dbf2 and Cdc15. Using a fusion to jellyfish green fluorescent protein (GFP), here we report that Cdc15 costains with the microtubular-organizing apparatus and that this localization is precluded in a mutant lacking the outer plaque of the spindle pole body (SPB). The appearance of Cdc15 in the SPB is asymmetric and cell-cycle-regulated, preferentially marking the daughter cell SPB at anaphase and eventually disappearing at cytokinesis. Overproduction of GFP-tagged Cdc15 led to an accumulation of the fusion protein in both mother and daughter cells SPBs and, transiently, in small budded cells and shmoos. The Cdc15 localization pattern was maintained in dbf2, cdc14 and anaphase-promoting complex (cdc16) mutants, suggesting that the function of these proteins is not related to the localization of Cdc15 to the SPB but rather, at least in the case of Cdc14, to its timely removal from this structure. Tem1-depleted cells kept alive by Cdc15-GFP overexpression still display a proper localization of Cdc15. The results presented here suggest that the transient cell-cycle-dependent localization of Cdc15 to the SPB plays a role in the regulation of the latest stages of the cell cycle.