A Noncanonical Hippo Pathway Regulates Spindle Disassembly and Cytokinesis During Meiosis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Meiosis in the budding yeastSaccharomyces cerevisiaeis used to create haploid yeast spores from a diploid mother cell. During meiosis II, cytokinesis occurs by closure of the prospore membrane, a membrane that initiates at the spindle pole body and grows to surround each of the haploid meiotic products. Timely prospore membrane closure requires, which encodes anfamily GCKIII kinase. To identify genes that may activate, we utilized a histone phosphorylation defect ofmutants to screen for genes with a similar phenotype and found thatshared this phenotype.encodes a Hippo-like kinase that is part of the mitotic exit network. We find thatcomplexes with, thatphosphorylation requires, and thatis also required for timely prospore membrane closure. We also find that, like, is required for meiosis II spindle disassembly and sustained anaphase II release ofin meiosis. However, the NDR-kinase complex encoded by/which functions downstream ofin mitotic cells, does not appear to play a role in spindle disassembly, timely prospore membrane closure, or sustained anaphase IIrelease. Taken together, our results suggest that the mitotic exit network is rewired for exit from meiosis II, such thatreplaces the NDR-kinase complex downstream of CDC15.