Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology 1996
Madison, Wisconsin
August 1996


Name: CHOW, CHEOK-MAN
Mailing Address: South Parks Road,, Oxford, / OX1 3QU Oxford United Kingdom
Email Address: cchow@molbiol.ox.ac.ukAnalysis
Phone and Fax numbers: +44-1865-275306, +44-1865-275297

Chromatin dynamics in fission yeast

Cheok-man Chow1, C.L.Doe1, M.D.Fricker2, E.J.C.Mellor1. 1)Microbiology Unit, Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QU, UK 2)Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, South parks Road, Oxford OX1 3RB, UK

The Swi6 protein in fission yeast, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, contains a chromo domain, a motif first identified in Drosophila HP1 protein, which is thought to be involved with the formation of heterochromatin. The Swi6 protein also has been shown to be associated with centromeres, telomeres and mating-type loci. Therefore, we have employed Swi6 as a tool for studying chromatin dynamics in S. pombe. We have made a construct expressing Swi6 fused with green fluorescent protein (GFP) and followed the in vivo dynamics of this chimeric protein in living cells. We have demonstrated that the distribution of Swi6-GFP inside the nuclei altered during mitosis. Also, the distribution pattern is abolished in the presence of clr4 and rik1 mutations.