THE EFFECTS OF A RING CHROMOSOME ON THE MEIOTIC SEGREGATION OF OTHER CHROMOSOMES IN SACCHAROMYCES-CEREVISIAE

Meiotic chromosome segregation must occur with high fidelity in order to prevent the generation of aneuploid cells. We have previously described the identification and genetic characterization of a yeast mutant with defects in meiotic sister-chromatid segregation. We attributed the phenotype in this mutant to a dominant allele, which we referred to as SID1-1. These mutants appeared to exhibit high levels of nondisjunction and precocious separation of sister-chromatids of chromosome III, as well as precocious separation of sister chromatids of chromosome VIII and a univalent artificial chromosome. We show here that the unusual meiotic behavior of chromosome III in these strains is due to the presence of a ring III chromosome, rather than a mutant gene. Additional experiments demonstrate that a ring III/rod III pair alters the meiotic segregation of a univalent artificial chromosome.