UC San Diego

Segregation of functional organelles during the cell cycle is crucial to generate healthy daughter cells. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, ER stress causes an ER inheritance block to ensure cells inherit a functional ER. Here, we report that formation of tubular ER in the mother cell, the first step in ER inheritance, depends on functional symmetry between the cortical ER (cER) and perinuclear ER (pnER). ER stress induces functional asymmetry, blocking tubular ER formation and ER inheritance. Using fluorescence recovery after photobleaching, we show that the ER chaperone Kar2/BiP fused to GFP and an ER membrane reporter, Hmg1-GFP, behave differently in the cER and pnER. The functional asymmetry and tubular ER formation depend on Reticulons/Yop1, which maintain ER structure. LUNAPARK1 deletion in rtn1Δrtn2Δyop1Δ cells restores the pnER/cER functional asymmetry, tubular ER generation, and ER inheritance blocks. Thus, Reticulon/Yop1-dependent changes in ER structure are linked to ER inheritance during the yeast cell cycle.