Novel Role for a Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Nucleoporin, Nup170p, in Chromosome Segregation

We determined that a mutation in the nucleoporin gene NUP170 leads to defects in chromosome transmission fidelity (ctf) and kinetochore integrity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. A ctf mutant strain, termed s141, shows a transcription readthrough phenotype and stabilizes a dicentric chromosome fragment in two assays for kinetochore integrity. Previously, these assays led to the identification of two essential kinetochore components, Ctf13p and Ctf14p. Thus, s141 represents another ctf mutant involved in the maintenance of kinetochore integrity. We cloned and mapped the gene complementing the ctf mutation of s141 and showed that it is identical to the S. cerevisiae NUP170 gene. A deletion strain of NUP170 (nup170 Delta::HIS3) has a Ctf(-) phenotype similar to the s141 mutant (nup170-141) and also exhibits a kinetochore integrity defect. We identified a second nucleoporin, NUP157, a homologue of NUP170, as a suppressor of the Ctf(-) phenotype of nup170-141 and nup170 Delta::HIS3 strains. However, a deletion of NUP157 or several other nucleoporins did not affect chromosome segregation. Our data suggest that NUP170 encodes a specialized nucleoporin with a unique role in chromosome segregation and possibly kinetochore function.