Functional Interaction Between the PKC1 Pathway and CDC31 Network of SPB Duplication Genes

The earliest known step in yeast spindle pole body (SPB) duplication requires Cdc31p and Kar1p, two physically interacting SPB components, and Dsk2p and Rad23p, a pair of ubiquitin-like proteins. Components of the PKC1 pathway were found to interact with these SPB duplication genes in two independent genetic screens. Initially, SLG1 and PKC1 were obtained as high-copy suppressors of dsk2Δ rad23Δ and a mutation in MPK1 was synthetically lethal with kar1-Δ17. Subsequently, we demonstrated extensive genetic interactions between the PKC1 pathway and the SPB duplication mutants that affect Cdc31p function. The genetic interactions are unlikely to be related to the cell-wall integrity function of the PKC1 pathway because the SPB mutants did not exhibit cell-wall defects. Overexpression of multiple PKC1 pathway components suppressed the G2/M arrest of the SPB duplication mutants and mutations in MPK1 exacerbated the cell cycle arrest of kar1-Δ17, suggesting a role for the PKC1 pathway in SPB duplication. We also found that mutations in SPC110, which encodes a major SPB component, showed genetic interactions with both CDC31 and the PKC1 pathway. In support of the model that the PKC1 pathway regulates SPB duplication, one of the phosphorylated forms of Spc110p was absent in pkc1 and mpk1Δ mutants.