Ubiquitination-mediated Golgi-to-endosome sorting determines the toxin-antidote duality of fission yeast wtf meiotic drivers.

Killer meiotic drivers (KMDs) skew allele transmission in their favor by killing meiotic progeny not inheriting the driver allele. Despite their widespread presence in eukaryotes, the molecular mechanisms behind their selfish behavior are poorly understood. In several fission yeast species, single-gene KMDs belonging to the wtf gene family exert selfish killing by expressing a toxin and an antidote through alternative transcription initiation.

The ortholog of human REEP1-4 is required for autophagosomal enclosure of ER-phagy/nucleophagy cargos in fission yeast.

Selective macroautophagy of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and the nucleus, known as ER-phagy and nucleophagy, respectively, are processes whose mechanisms remain inadequately understood. Through an imaging-based screen, we find that in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Yep1 (also known as Hva22 or Rop1), the ortholog of human REEP1-4, is essential for ER-phagy and nucleophagy but not for bulk autophagy. In the absence of Yep1, the initial phase of ER-phagy and nucleophagy proceeds normally, with the ER-phagy/nucleophagy receptor Epr1 coassembling with Atg8.

A UPR-Induced Soluble ER-Phagy Receptor Acts with VAPs to Confer ER Stress Resistance.

Autophagic degradation of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER-phagy) is triggered by ER stress in diverse organisms. However, molecular mechanisms governing ER stress-induced ER-phagy remain insufficiently understood. Here we report that ER stress-induced ER-phagy in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe requires Epr1, a soluble Atg8-interacting ER-phagy receptor.

Atg38-Atg8 interaction in fission yeast establishes a positive feedback loop to promote autophagy.

Macroautophagy (autophagy) is driven by the coordinated actions of core autophagy-related (Atg) proteins. Atg8, the core Atg protein generally considered acting most downstream, has recently been shown to interact with other core Atg proteins via their Atg8-family-interacting motifs (AIMs). However, the extent, functional consequence, and evolutionary conservation of such interactions remain inadequately understood.

A large gene family in fission yeast encodes spore killers that subvert Mendel's law.

Spore killers in fungi are selfish genetic elements that distort Mendelian segregation in their favor. It remains unclear how many species harbor them and how diverse their mechanisms are. Here, we discover two spore killers from a natural isolate of the fission yeast .