Monoclonal antibody with specificity to mitotic chromosomes of primates

Fusion of a cell in mitosis with a cell in interphase results in the condensation of chromatin in the interphase nucleus into chromosomes. Premature chromosome condensation is caused by certain proteins, called mitotic factors, that are present in the mitotic cell and are localized on chromosomes. Extracts from mitotic cells were used to immunize mice to produce monoclonal antibodies specific for cells in mitosis. Among the antibodies obtained, the MPM-4 antibody defines a 125-kD polypeptide antigen located on mitotic chromosomes by indirect immunofluorescence. Although the polypeptide antigen is present in approximately equal concentrations in extracts of interphase cells and mitotic cells, as revealed by immunoblots, it cannot be detected cytologically in the former. Cell fractionation experiments showed that the 125-kD antigen is found in the cytoplasm of interphase cells and metaphase cells, but is concentrated in fractions containing metaphase chromosomes, although not detectable in interphase nuclei. Even though the antigen is apparently primate-specific, it binds to mitotic chromosomes and prematurely condensed chromosomes in human-rodent cell hybrids without regard to the species of origin of the mitotic inducer. The presence of the antigen in the cytoplasm of interphase cells and the chromosomes of mitotic cells suggests a relationship between the presence of the antigen on chromosomes and the process of chromosome condensation and decondensation.     

PTP-S2, a nuclear tyrosine phosphatase, is phosphorylated and excluded from condensed chromosomes during mitosis

PTP-S2 is a tyrosine specific protein phosphatase that binds to DNA and is localized to the nucleus in association with chromatin. It plays a role in the regulation of cell proliferation. Here we show that the subcellular distribution of this protein changes during cell division. While PTP-S2 was localized exclusively to the nucleus in interphase cells, during metaphase and anaphase it was distributed throughout the cytoplasm and excluded from condensed chromosomes. At telophase PTP-S2 began to associate with chromosomes and at cytokinesis it was associated with chromatin in the newly formed nucleus. It was hyperphosphorylated and showed retarded mobility in cells arrested in metaphase. In vitro experiments showed that it was phosphorylated by CK2 resulting in mobility shift. Using a deletion mutant we found that CK2 phosphorylated PTP-S2 in the C-terminal non-catalytic domain. A heparin sensitive kinase from mitotic cell extracts phosphorylated PTP-S2 resulting in mobility shift. These results are consistent with the suggestion that during metaphase PTP-S2 is phosphorylated (possibly by CK2 or a CK2-like enzyme), resulting in its dissociation from chromatin.     

Factors influencing ADP-ribosylation differences between chromosomal proteins of interphase and metaphase HeLa cells

Fundamental differences were previously discovered in the ADP-ribosylation of proteins from metaphase chromosomes and interphase nuclei of HeLa cells. The number of modified nonhistone species was found to be dramatically reduced for metaphase chromosomes. An investigation has therefore been made of factors which could influence, and therefore be responsible for, this change in ADP-ribosylation during the cell cycle. Modified proteins were detected by autoradiography of sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gels containing mitotic and interphase samples from permeabilized cells that had been incubated with [32P]NAD. Whole cells showed a difference between interphase and metaphase similar to that for isolated nuclei and chromosomes. Chromosome expansion, disruption of chromosomes or nuclei, DNA nicking, and cellular growth activity significantly changed the incorporation of 32P label. Inhibitors of protein, RNA, and DNA synthesis did not, however, greatly affect ADP-ribosylation. The pattern of labeled species was not altered by the presence of nonradioactive NAD, though the extent of labeling declined. The results were not artifactually due to the procedure used to arrest cells in mitosis. Similar results were found with Novikoff rat hepatoma cells, demonstrating that the difference between metaphase and interphase is not confined to HeLa cells.     

Perturbation of mammalian cell division. II. Studies on the isolation and characterization of human mini segregant cells.

A method is described for the isolation, according to size, of mini segregants produced by the abnormal cleavage of reversibly arrested mitotic HeLa cells. Many of these mini segregants contain small amounts of DNA, as judged by Feulgen staining and chromosome analysis. After fusion with mitotic HeLa cells, the interphase chromosomes of the mini segregants are seen as either monovalent or bivalent prematurely condensed chromosomes (PCC), some of which are damaged. A proportion of isolated mini segregants synthesize DNA, RNA and protein. Fusion of mini segregants with interphase HeLa cells gives rise to cells with 'hybrid' karyotypes.     

Nuclear lamins during prophasing and telophasing in heterophasic HeLa and Chinese hamster homokaryons

We have perturbed the dynamics of the nuclear lamins by means of cell fusion between mitotic and interphase cells and have studied redistribution of lamins in fused cells as a function of extracellular pH levels. We show here that in heterophasic M-1 HeLa homokaryons disassembly of interphase lamins predominates at low pH levels between 7.0 to 7.3, whereas deposition of cytoplasmic lamins around condensed metaphase chromosomes was observed at pH 8.0. In HeLa homokaryons lamina disassembly and lamina deposition around chromosomes are mutually exclusive. Using heterophasic M-1 homokaryons of the Chinese hamster cell line DON we observed that disassembly of interphase lamins and deposition of lamins around condensed chromosomes coexisted in the same homokaryon kept at pH 7.0. Disassembly of lamins developed synchronously with premature chromosome condensation (PCC) whereas lamina deposition around the condensed M-chromosomes was followed by telophasing. In fusions kept at pH 8.0 cytoplasmic lamins were exclusively deposited around mitotic chromosomes. The results are interpreted as showing that pH regulates the lamina dynamics in homokaryons of mitotic and interphase cells.     

Redistribution of nuclear lamins in mitotic cells

The nuclear lamins are directed from the cytoplasm to chromosomes as part of the maturation pathway of the interphase nucleoskeleton. In mitosis, the three polypeptides lamin A, B and C were found in the cytoplasm from prophase until anaphase and shifted to chromosomal surfaces at telophase (Ely, D'Arcy and Jost, 1978; Gerace, Blum and Blobel, 1978). We show here that early events in nucleoskeleton formation could be regulated by extracellular pH. When exponentially growing tissue culture cells and cells arrested in mitosis were exposed to different extracellular pH values, three patterns of distribution of lamins were observed in mitotic cells: exclusively cytoplasmic distribution of mitotic lamins at low pH (6.8 to 7.3); a premature association of a lamin subfraction with metaphase chromosomes at intermediate pH 7.5; a more prominent relocation of lamins onto chromosomes in metaphase and in disorganized metaphase at pH 8.0. Reassembly of lamins occurred at telomeric ends of mitotic chromosomes followed by a lateral fusion to form a nuclear cage. Using immunogold localization, we show that pH-induced, premature, partial deposition of lamins onto condensed chromosomes may occur prior to the formation of the bilamellar nuclear envelope. These results suggest that the pH-induced redistribution of lamins acts to trigger early events of mitosis to interphase transition.     

Quantitative conservation of chromatin-bound RNA polymerases I and II in mitosis. Implications for chromosome structure

RNA synthesis almost ceases in mitosis. It is ambiguous whether this temporal, negative control of RNA synthesis is solely because of the nature of chromosomes per se, (i.e., their condensed state), or to a physical loss of RNA polymerases along with other nuclear proteins which have been shown to pass into the cytoplasm in mitosis, or to their combined feature. Aside from such regulatory considerations, a question has also been raised as to whether RNA polymerases are constituents of metaphase chromosomes. To clarify these aspects of RNA polymerase-chromatin interaction in mitosis, the enzymes in chromosomes were quantitated and their levels compared to those in interphase nuclei and cells at various phases of the cell cycle. The results show that the amounts of form I, form II, and probably form III enzymes bound to a genome-equivalent of chromatin stay constant during the cell cycle. Thus, the mechanism for the negative control of RNA synthesis in mitosis appears to exist in the chromosomes per se, but not to be directly related to the RNA polymerase levels. This quantitative conservation of chromatin-bound RNA polymerases implies that they may persist as structural components of the chromosomes in mitosis.     

Trichomonas vaginalis: chromatin and mitotic spindle during mitosis

The mitotic phases and the changes that the chromatin and mitotic microtubules undergo during mitosis in the sexually transmitted parasite Trichomonas vaginalis are described. Parasites arrested in the gap 2 phase of the cell cycle by nutrient starvation were induced to mitosis by addition of fresh whole medium. [(3)H] Thymidine labeling of trichomonad parasites for 24 h showed that parasites have at least four synchronic duplications after mitosis induction. Fixed or live and acridine orange (AO)-stained trichomonads analyzed at different times during mitosis by epifluorescence microscopy showed that mitosis took about 45 min and is divided into five stages: prophase, metaphase, early and late anaphase, early and late telophase, and cytokinesis. The AO-stained nucleus of live trichomonads showed green (DNA) and orange (RNA) fluorescence, and the nucleic acid nature was confirmed by DNase and RNase treatment, respectively. The chromatin appeared partially condensed during interphase. At metaphase, it appeared as six condensed chromosomes, as recently reported, which decondensed at anaphase and migrated to the nuclear poles at telophase. In addition, small bundles of microtubules (as hemispindles) were detected only in metaphase with the polyclonal antibody anti-Entamoeba histolytica alpha-tubulin. This antibody showed that the hemispindle and an atractophore-like structure seem to duplicate and polarize during metaphase. In conclusion, T. vaginalis mitosis involves five mitotic phases in which the chromatin undergoes different degrees of condensation, from chromosomes to decondensed chromatin, and two hemispindles that are observed only in the metaphase stage.     

PROTEIN SYNTHESIS AND RNA SYNTHESIS DURING MITOSIS IN ANIMAL CELLS

Protein synthesis and RNA synthesis during mitosis were studied by autoradiography on mammalian tissue culture cells. Protein synthesis was followed by incubating hamster epithelial and human amnion cells for 10 or 15 minutes with phenylalanine-C¹⁴. To study RNA synthesis the hamster cells were incubated for 10 minutes with uridine-C¹⁴. Comparisons of the synthetic capacity of the interphase and mitotic cells were then made using whole cell grain counts. The rate of RNA synthesis decreased during prophase and reached a low of 13 to 16 per cent of the average interphase rate during metaphase-anaphase. Protein synthesis in the hamster cells showed a 42 per cent increase during prophase with a subsequent return to the average interphase value during metaphase-anaphase. The human amnion cells showed no significant change at prophase but there was a 52 to 56 per cent drop in phenylalanine incorporation at metaphase-anaphase as compared to the average interphase rate. Colcemide was used on the hamster cells to study the effect of a prolonged mitotic condition on protein and RNA synthesis. Under this condition, uridine incorporation was extremely low whereas phenylalanine incorporation was still relatively high. The drastic reduction of RNA synthesis observed under mitotic conditions is believed to be due to the coiled condition of the chromosomes. The lack of a comparable reduction in protein synthesis during mitosis is interpreted as evidence for the presence in these cells of a relatively stable messenger RNA.     

INCREASE OF DNA POLYMERASE ACTIVITY FIRMLY BOUND TO NUCLEI DURING THE DNA SYNTHETIC PHASE OF THE CELL CYCLE

DNA polymerase activities were measured on nuclear and supernatant fractions obtained from hamster fibroblast cells (the Don-C clone) grown in tissue culture and mitotically synchronized by selective removal of cells arrested in metaphase following a brief exposure to colcemid. A reproducible fraction (5–10%) of the polymerase activity was found to remain bound in the nuclear pellet after repeated cycles of freezing and thawing. The specific activity of this firmly-bound nuclear DNA polymerase was found to increase during S-phase in proportion to DNA synthesis. The bulk of this activity, after extraction in 1 m salt, exhibited an S value of 8·7 on neutral high salt sucrose gradients and was 24 times more active with poly dA. dT₁₀ as template than with heat denatured DNA. The rest of the cellular DNA polymerase activity showed no significant variation correlated with the cell cycle. This activity also had an S value from 8 to 9 but it was only 2·8 times more active with the homopolymer template than with heat denatured DNA. DNA polymerase activity similar to the firmly-bound activity was found in extracts prepared from metaphase chromosomes.     

Human cyclins A and B1 are differentially located in the cell and undergo cell cycle-dependent nuclear transport

We have used immunofluorescence staining to study the subcellular distribution of cyclin A and B1 during the somatic cell cycle. In both primary human fibroblasts and in epithelial tumor cells, we find that cyclin A is predominantly nuclear from S phase onwards. Cyclin A may associated with condensing chromosomes in prophase, but is not associated with condensed chromosomes in metaphase. By contrast, cyclin B1 accumulates in the cytoplasm of interphase cells and only enters the nucleus at the beginning of mitosis, before nuclear lamina breakdown. In mitotic cells, cyclin B1 associates with condensed chromosomes in prophase and metaphase, and with the mitotic apparatus. Cyclin A is degraded during metaphase and cyclin B1 is precipitously destroyed at the metaphase----anaphase transition. Cell fractionation and immunoprecipitation studies showed that both cyclin A and cyclin B1 are associated with PSTAIRE-containing proteins. The nuclear, but not the cytoplasmic form, of cyclin A is associated with a 33-kD PSTAIRE-containing protein. Cyclin B1 is associated with p34cdc2 in the cytoplasm. Thus we propose that the different localization of cyclin A and cyclin B1 in the cell cycle could be the means by which the two types of mitotic cyclin confer substrate specificity upon their associated PSTAIRE-containing protein kinase subunit.     

A cytochemical study of the nonhistone protein content of condensed and extended chromatin

Cytochemical techniques have been used to study the distribution of nonhistone proteins in sections of interphase nuclei and mitotic chromosomes. Condensed chromatin, including the heterochromatin of interphase nuclei from frog liver, and mitotic metaphase and anaphase chromosomes from bovine kidney, show little or no staining for nonhistone protein. Regions of frog liver nuclei which contain extended chromatin (euchromatin) stain intensely for nonhistone protein. These differences in nonhistone staining of condensed and extended chromatin support the suggestion that regions of condensed chromatin contain considerably less nonhistone protein than regions of extended chromatin. The results suggest further that there may be considerably less nonhistone protein associated with chromosomes and interphase heterochromatin than has been reported in most previous analyses of isolated chromatin and chromosome preparations.     

Metabolic inhibitors and mitosis: I. Effects of dinitrophenol/deoxyglucose and nocodazole on the live spindle

Summary Dinitrophenol and deoxyglucose (DNP/DOG) were used to investigate the effects of ATP depletion on mitotic PtK₁ cells. Direct determination of cellular ATP levels showed that the drop of ATP induced by DNP/DOG was rapid; recovery to normal ATP levels was equally rapid once DNP/DOG was removed. On addition of DNP/DOG to live cells, cytoplasmic activity ceased; interphase and prophase cells showed little other response to DNP/DOG. During prometaphase, DNP/DOG induced a pronounced movement of oscillating, monopolar chromosomes towards the spindle poles. As chromosomes became bipolarly attached, DNP/DOG caused the spindle poles themselves to move together. By metaphase, DNP/DOG-treatment led to significant shortening of the spindle which remained intact. DNP/DOG rapidly stopped anaphase chromosome movement and cytokinesis.Nocodazole (NOC) caused the rapid breakdown of the mitotic spindle; prometaphase chromosomes clustered at the poles and in metaphase cells, the poles were drawn towards the chromosomes as the spindle became disorganized. When cells were pretreated with DNP/DOG and then NOC/DNP/DOG, nocodazole did not break down the spindle. When nocodazole was applied first to break down spindle MTs then DNP/DOG was added to the nocodazole, a second contraction was often induced by the DNP/DOG in the absence of spindle microtubules (MTs). Chromosomes expanded appreciably outwards from the poles when the DNP/DOG was removed, even when the cells remained in nocodazole.     

AN ANALYSIS OF HETEROCHROMATIN IN MAIZE ROOT TIPS

The B chromosomes of maize are condensed in appearance during interphase and are relatively inert genetically; therefore they fulfill the definition of heterochromatin. This heterochromatin was studied in root meristem cells by radioautography following administration of tritiated thymidine and cytidine, and was found to behave in a characteristic way, i.e. it showed asynchronous DNA synthesis and very low, if any, RNA synthesis. A cytochemical comparison of normal maize nuclei with nuclei from isogenic maize stock containing approximately 15–20 B-chromosomes in addition to the normal complement has revealed the following: (a) the DNA and histone contents are greater in nuclei with B chromosomes; (b) the proportion of DNA to histone is identical with that of nuclei containing only normal chromosomes; (c) the amount of nonhistone protein in proportion to DNA in interphase is less in nuclei with B chromosomes than in normal nuclei. In condensed B chromosomes the ratio of nonhistone protein to DNA is similar to that in other condensed chromatin, such as metaphase chromosomes and degenerating nuclei. The B chromosomes appear to have no effect on nucleolar RNA and protein. Replication of B chromosomes is precisely controlled and is comparable to that of the ordinary chromosomes not only in synthesis for mitosis but also in formation of polyploid nuclei of root cap and protoxylem cells.     

Mos-induced p42 mitogen-activated protein kinase activation stabilizes M-phase in Xenopus egg extracts after cyclin destruction

Previously, we have shown that the addition of a constitutively-active mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase protein (MAPKK = MEK) to cycling Xenopus egg extracts activates the p42MAPK pathway, leading to a G2 or M-phase cell cycle arrest. The stage of the arrest depends on the timing of p42MAPK activation. If p42MAPK is activated prior to M-phase, or after exit from M-phase, the extract is arrested in G2. If p42MAPK is activated during entry into M-phase, the extract is arrested in M-phase. In this study, we show that the addition of recombinant Mos protein (which directly phosphorylates and activates MEK) to cycling egg extracts has the same effect as those described for MEK. The addition of Mos to the extract at the start of incubation leads to a G2 arrest with large interphase nuclei with intact nuclear envelopes. If Mos is added at later times, however, the activation of p42MAPK leads to an M-phase arrest with condensed chromosomes and mitotic arrays of microtubules. Moreover, the extent of M-phase specific phosphorylations is shown by the sustained presence of phosphoproteins that are detected by the monoclonal antibody MPM-2. Unexpectedly, in certain M-phase arrested extracts, histone H1 kinase activity levels reach a peak on entry into M-phase but then fall abruptly to interphase levels. When these extracts are analyzed by immunoblotting, Cyclin B2 is destroyed in those samples containing low maturation promoting factor activity (MPF, cyclin B/Cdc2), yet chromosomes remain condensed with associated mitotic arrays of microtubules and M-phase-specific phosphorylations are sustained. These results suggest that although MPF is required for entry into M-phase, once established, M-phase can be maintained by the p42MAPK pathway after the proteolysis of mitotic cyclins.     

Post-metaphase mitotic events in cells treated with dinitrophenol

The sequence of post-metaphase mitotic events, such as anaphase movement A and B, chromosome decondensation, nuclear envelope reformation and cytokinesis, has been studied in 2,4-initrophenol (DNP)-treated HeLa cells. The effects of DNP were found to be dose dependent and at concentrations higher than 3 mM, both anaphase A and B movements were totally and nearly instantaneously arrested. It could be shown that cytokinesis did not depend on the completion of anaphase movements. This was also true for nuclear envelope reformation which could take place even around condensed chromosomes arrested in anaphase. The post-metaphase mitotic events do not follow a strict causal sequence, but they can be dissociated from each other in anaphase-arrested cells.     

Localization and structure of snRNPs during mitosis. Immunofluorescent and biochemical studies

The distribution of U snRNAs during mitosis was studied by indirect immunofluorescence microscopy with snRNA cap-specific anti-m3G antibodies. Whereas the snRNAs are strictly nuclear at late prophase, they become distributed in the cell plasm at metaphase and anaphase. They re-enter the newly formed nuclei of the two daughter cells at early telophase, producing speckled nuclear fluorescent patterns typical of interphase cells. While the snRNAs become concentrated at the rim of the condensing chromosomes and at interchromosomal regions at late prophase, essentially no association of the snRNAs was observed with the condensed chromosomes during metaphase and anaphase. Independent immunofluorescent studies with anti-(U1)RNP autoantibodies, which react specifically with proteins unique to the U1 snRNP species, showed the same distribution of snRNP antigens during mitosis as was observed with the snRNA-specific anti-m3G antibody. Immunoprecipitation studies with anti-(U1)RNP and anti-Sm autoantibodies, as well as protein analysis of snRNPs isolated from extracts of mitotic cells, demonstrate that the snRNAs remain associated in a specific manner with the same set of proteins during interphase and mitosis. The concept that the overall structure of the snRNPs is maintained during mitosis also applies to the coexistence of the snRNAs U4 and U6 in a single ribonucleoprotein complex. Particle sedimentation studies in sucrose gradients reveal that most of the snRNPs present in sonicates of mitotic cells do not sediment as free RNP particles, but remain associated with high molecular weight (HMW) structures other than chromatin, most probably with hnRNA/RNP.     

Involvement of the 24-kDa cap-binding protein in regulation of protein synthesis in mitosis

The rate of protein synthesis in metaphase-arrested cells is reduced as compared to interphase cells. The reduction occurs at the translation initiation step. Here, we show that, whereas poliovirus RNA translation is not affected by the mitotic translational block, the translation of vesicular stomatitis virus mRNAs is. In an attempt to elucidate the mechanism by which initiation of protein synthesis is reduced in mitotic cells, we found that the interaction of the mRNA 24-kDa cap-binding protein (CBP) with the mRNA 5' cap structure is reduced in mitotic cell extracts, consistent with their lower translational efficiency. Addition of cap-binding protein complex stimulated the translation of endogenous mRNA in extracts from mitotic but not interphase cells. In addition, we found that the 24-kDa CBP from mitotic cells was metabolically labeled with 32P to a lesser extent than the protein purified from interphase cells. These results are consistent with a hypothesis that the 24-kDa CBP is implicated in the inhibition of protein synthesis in metaphase-arrested cells. Possible mechanisms for this inhibition are offered.