Identification of a Mid-anaphase Checkpoint in Budding Yeast

Activation of a facultative, dicentric chromosome provides a unique opportunity to introduce a double strand DNA break into a chromosome at mitosis. Time lapse video enhanced-differential interference contrast analysis of the cellular response upon dicentric activation reveals that the majority of cells initiates anaphase B, characterized by pole–pole separation, and pauses in mid-anaphase for 30–120 min with spindles spanning the neck of the bud before completing spindle elongation and cytokinesis. The length of the spindle at the delay point (3–4 μm) is not dependent on the physical distance between the two centromeres, indicating that the arrest represents surveillance of a dicentric induced aberration. No mid-anaphase delay is observed in the absence of the RAD9 checkpoint gene, which prevents cell cycle progression in the presence of damaged DNA. These observations reveal RAD9- dependent events well past the G2/M boundary and have considerable implications in understanding how chromosome integrity and the position and state of the mitotic spindle are monitored before cytokinesis.