Using Budding Yeast as a Model to Understand Dynein-Mediated Cargo Transport.

Abstract

Cytoplasmic dynein-1 is a minus end-directed microtubule motor that transports numerous cargoes in cell types throughout the evolutionary spectrum. Dynein is regulated by various motor-intrinsic and motor-extrinsic factors that enhance its processivity, recruit it to various cellular sites, or otherwise promote or restrict its activity. Studying dynein activity in higher eukaryotes is complicated by various factors, including the myriad functions in which this motor participates, and the consequential pleotropic effects associated with disrupting its activity. Budding yeast has long been a powerful model system for understanding this enormous motor protein complex, which is highly conserved between yeast and humans at the primary sequence and structural levels. Studies in budding yeast are simplified by the fact that dynein only performs one known function in this organism: to position the mitotic spindle at the site of cell division. Monitoring dynein-mediated spindle movements in budding yeast provides a powerful tool for the quantitative measurements of various motility parameters, and a system with which to assess the consequence of mutations in dynein or its regulators. Here, we provide detailed protocols to perform quantitative measurements of dynein activity in live cells using a combination of fluorescence microscopy and computational methods to track and quantitate dynein-mediated spindle movements. These methods are broadly applicable to anyone that wishes to perform fluorescence microscopy on budding yeast.