Interaction of the pim1/spi1 mitotic checkpoint with a protein phosphatase.

Loss of p58pim1, a homolog of human RCC1, results in uncoupling of mitosis from the completion of DNA replication in fission yeast. An extragenic suppressor of a mutant allele of pim1, esp1, has been isolated and characterized. esp1 encodes a predicted product of 305 amino acid residues, which shares 71% identity with budding yeast SIT4, a type2A related protein phosphatase. p58pim1 binds p25spi1, a 25-kd ras-related GTPase previously isolated as a high dosage suppressor of pim1. The complex dissociates in the presence of guanine nucleotides and Mg2+. The mutant p58pim1 is defective in its ability to bind p25spi1, suggesting that the physical interaction is essential for the maintenance of the interdependency of cell cycle event. In the esp1 pim1 double mutant, the mutant p58pim1 protein is still defective in its ability to bind to p25spi1. However, pmi1 induced premature mitosis is completely suppressed, suggesting that esp1 may act downstream of the p58pim1/p25spi1 physical interaction but upstream of the activation of the M-phase specific histone H1 kinase.