Study of Meiosis: Molecular Control and Chromosomal Segregation

Reductional nature of meiosis is responsible to maintain the ploidy in eukaryotes. In sexual reproduction, Meiotic division produces gametes of half ploidy and fertilization restores original chromosome number. In the meiosis sister chromatids are monoorientated which leads to separation of homologous chromosomes. This is followed by separation of sister chromatid in meiosis II because of biorientation of sister chromatids. Comparison of meiosis with mitosis reveals that monoorientation of sister chromatids is the main reason for halving the ploidy. According to the present hypothesis, Monopolin complex, A four subunit complex, directs monopolar attachment of sister chromatids. Present study is done to reveal the nature and function of this complex. Cell cycle arrest mutants were created and verified to maximize the number of cells at particular stage by deleting or shuffling the promoter of a particular gene. Then, Csm1 subunit of monopolin complex was affinity tagged and verified in arrested cells. As future prospects of this work affinity purification of Csm1 can be done. Comparison of protein profiles obtained will help to reveal the functional properties of monopolin complex.