A dominant negative allele of p34cdc2 shows altered phosphoamino acid content and sequesters p56cdc13 cyclin.

The cdc2 gene product, a 34-kDa phosphoprotein with serine/threonine protein kinase activity, has been implicated as the key component in the regulation of the eucaryotic cell cycle. Activation of the cdc2 protein kinase is regulated by its phosphorylation state and by interaction with other proteins. We have mutagenized the fission yeast cdc2 gene to obtain conditionally dominant negative alleles. One of these mutants, named DL2, is characterized in this report. Overexpression of the mutant protein in a wild-type cdc2 background is lethal and leads to arrest in the G2 phase of the cell cycle. The mutant phenotype is the result of a single amino acid change in the GDSEID motif of the protein, a region of identity in all cdc2 homologs, and results in a nonfunctional protein that shows an altered content of phosphothreonine. Multicopy suppressors of the dominant negative phenotype have been isolated, and one of these has been shown to encode the cdc13 cyclin B gene product.