Live-cell fluorescence imaging of meiotic chromosome dynamics in Schizosaccharomyces pombe

The fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe has provided a useful experimental system to study nuclear structures during meiosis. Unlike many higher animals in which meiosis takes place only in specialized tissues deep inside their bodies, S. pombe is a unicellular eukaryote and its meiosis can be induced simply by depleting nitrogen sources from the culture medium. The entire process of meiosis is completed within several hours, and thus can be followed in individual living cells. These features provide ease of microscopic observation. A more trivial merit is its rod-like cell shape, which aids microscopic observation, as the long axis of cells is kept in the microscope image plane. Here we describe methods for induction of meiosis and fluorescence microscopy observation in living cells of S. pombe.