UC San Diego

Ptc1p, a type 2C protein phosphatase, is required for a late step in cortical endoplasmic reticulum (cER) inheritance in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In ptc1Δ cells, ER tubules migrate from the mother cell and contact the bud tip, yet fail to spread around the bud cortex. This defect results from the failure to inactivate a bud tip-associated pool of the cell wall integrity mitogen-activated protein kinase, Slt2p. Here we report that the polarisome complex affects cER inheritance through its effects on Slt2p, with different components playing distinct roles: Spa2p and Pea2p are required for Slt2p retention at the bud tip, whereas Bni1p, Bud6p, and Sph1p affect the level of Slt2p activation. Depolymerization of actin relieves the ptc1Δ cER inheritance defect, suggesting that in this mutant the ER becomes trapped on the cytoskeleton. Loss of Sec3p also blocks ER inheritance, and, as in ptc1Δ cells, this block is accompanied by activation of Slt2p and is reversed by depolymerization of actin. Our results point to a common mechanism for the regulation of ER inheritance in which Slt2p activity at the bud tip controls the association of the ER with the actin-based cytoskeleton.