Identification of a mid-anaphase checkpoint in budding yeast

Activation of a facultative, dicentric chromosome provides a unique opportunity to introduce a double strand DNA break into a chromosome at mitosis. Time lapse video enhanced-differential interference contrast analysis of the cellular response upon dicentric activation reveals that the majority of cells initiates anaphase B, characterized by pole-pole separation, and pauses in mid-anaphase for 30-120 min with spindles spanning the neck of the bud before completing spindle elongation and cytokinesis. The length of the spindle at the delay point (3-4 microm) is not dependent on the physical distance between the two centromeres, indicating that the arrest represents surveillance of a dicentric induced aberration. No mid-anaphase delay is observed in the absence of the RAD9 checkpoint gene, which prevents cell cycle progression in the presence of damaged DNA. These observations reveal RAD9-dependent events well past the G2/M boundary and have considerable implications in understanding how chromosome integrity and the position and state of the mitotic spindle are monitored before cytokinesis.