Inner nuclear membrane protein Lem2 facilitates Rad3-mediated checkpoint signaling under replication stress induced by nucleotide depletion in fission yeast.

DNA replication checkpoint is a highly conserved cellular signaling pathway critical for maintaining genome integrity in eukaryotes. It is activated when DNA replication is perturbed. In Schizosaccharomyces pombe, perturbed replication forks activate the sensor kinase Rad3 (ATR/Mec1), which works cooperatively with mediator Mrc1 and the 9-1-1 checkpoint clamp to phosphorylate the effector kinase Cds1 (CHK2/Rad53). Phosphorylation of Cds1 promotes autoactivation of the kinase. Activated Cds1 diffuses away from the forks and stimulates most of the checkpoint responses under replication stress. Although this signaling pathway has been well understood in fission yeast, how the signaling is initiated and thus regulated remains incompletely understood. Previous studies have shown that deletion of lem2(+) sensitizes cells to the inhibitor of ribonucleotide reductase, hydroxyurea. However, the underlying mechanism is still not well understood. This study shows that in the presence of hydroxyurea, Lem2 facilitates Rad3-mediated checkpoint signaling for Cds1 activation. Without Lem2, all known Rad3-dependent phosphorylations critical for replication checkpoint signaling are seriously compromised, which likely causes the aberrant mitosis and drug sensitivity observed in this mutant. Interestingly, the mutant is not very sensitive to DNA damage and the DNA damage checkpoint remains largely intact, suggesting that the main function of Lem2 is to facilitate checkpoint signaling in response to replication stress. Since Lem2 is an inner nuclear membrane protein, these results also suggest that the replication checkpoint may be spatially regulated inside the nucleus, a previously unknown mechanism.