Fission yeast cells mix parental mitochondria in a progressive manner during meiosis.

Mitochondria in many fungi are inherited uniparentally during meiosis. It has remained unclear whether parental mitochondria in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe are inherited uniparentally or biparentally. Here, we assessed the mixing of parental mitochondria carefully by live-cell microscopy and developed an algorithm to determine the degree of mitochondrial mixing in a quantitative manner.

The Cdc42 GAP Rga6 promotes monopolar outgrowth of spores.

The molecular mechanisms underlying the establishment of the monopolar growth of fission yeast spores have been less characterized. Here, we report that the Cdc42 GTPase-activating protein (GAP) Rga6 is required for promoting monopolar growth during spore germination. The absence of Rga6 increases the number of spores that grow in a bipolar fashion.