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Updated: Jul 7, 2026

Use of Time-Lapse Microscopy and Stage-Specific Nuclear Depletion of Proteins to Study Meiosis in S. cerevisiae
Published on: October 11, 2022
Cdc28-Clb5 (CDK-S) and Cdc7-Dbf4 (DDK) collaborate to initiate meiotic recombination in yeast
Lihong Wan1, Hengyao Niu, Bruce Futcher
1Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794, USA.
Abstract:
S-phase cyclin-dependent kinase Cdc28-Clb5 (CDK-S) and Dbf4-dependent kinase Cdc7-Dbf4 (DDK) are highly conserved kinases well known for their roles in the initiation of DNA replication. CDK-S is also essential for initiation of meiotic recombination because it phosphorylates Ser30 of Mer2, a meiosis-specific double-strand break (DSB) protein. This work shows that the phosphorylation of Mer2 Ser30 by CDK-S primes Mer2 for subsequent phosphorylation by DDK on Ser29, creating a negatively charged "patch" necessary for DSB formation. CDK-S and DDK phosphorylation of Mer2 S30 and S29 can be bypassed by phosphomimetic amino acids, but break formation under these conditions is still dependent on DDK and CDK-S activity. Coordination between premeiotic S and DSB formation may be achieved by using CDK-S and DDK to initiate both processes. Many other proteins important for replication, recombination, repair, and chromosome segregation contain combination DDK/CDK sites, raising the possibility that this is a common regulatory mechanism.
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