Characterization of temperature-sensitive alleles of anillin-like Mid1 and polo kinase Plo1 in Schizosaccharomyces pombe.

The Schizosaccharomyces pombe anillin-like Mid1 is important for the correct positioning of the cell division site. A key regulator of Mid1 is the polo kinase Plo1 which is important for several mitotic and cytokinetic events including spindle formation and division site placement. Here, we defined the mutations within a set of temperature-sensitive mid1 and plo1 alleles and compared the growth and morphological defects of the strains. This work expands the repertoire of mid1 and plo1 mutants for studying cytokinesis and highlights the requirement of the Mid1 C2 domain and the Plo1 kinase domain C-terminal lobe as particularly important for cytokinesis.