Expression profile in wild type, fkh2delta and fkh2-S2A mutants

Mitotic entry is accompanyed by the expression of a cluster of so called mitotic genes, whose activation is critical for mitosis in human and yeast cells. We found a link between the transcription machinery and cell cycle control network at mitosis in fission yeast, involving the Cdk8 kinase dependent phosphorylation of the fork head transcription factor Fkh2. We have generated a non-phosphorylatable fkh2 mutant (fkh2-S2A) also. We have used microarrays to study the gene expression changes in fkh2 deletion and phosphomutants vs Wt in exponentially growing fission yeast cells to detect how the phosphorylation may affect global and mitotic gene expression. RNA samples were taken from exponentially growing fission yeast cells and hybridized to affymetrix microarrays: wild type, fkh2delta and fkh2-S2A mutants