S. pombe wtf genes use dual transcriptional regulation and selective protein exclusion from spores to cause meiotic drive

Meiotic drivers bias gametogenesis to ensure their transmission into more than half the offspring of a heterozygote. In Schizosaccharomyces pombe, wtf meiotic drivers destroy the meiotic products (spores) that do not inherit the driver from a heterozygote, thereby reducing fertility. wtf drivers encode both a Wtfpoison protein and a Wtfantidote protein using alternative transcriptional start sites. Here, we analyze how the expression and localization of the Wtf proteins are regulated to achieve drive. We show that transcriptional timing and selective protein exclusion from developing spores ensure that all spores are exposed to Wtf4poison, but only the spores that inherit wtf4 receive a dose of Wtf4antidote sufficient for survival. In addition, we show that the Mei4 transcription factor, a master regulator of meiosis, controls the expression of the wtf4poison transcript. This dual transcriptional regulation, which includes the use of a critical meiotic transcription factor, likely complicates the universal suppression of wtf genes without concomitantly disrupting spore viability. We propose that these features contribute to the evolutionary success of the wtf drivers. Author SummaryKiller meiotic drivers are one type of selfish DNA sequence. When only one copy of a killer meiotic driver is found in a genome, the driver is expected to be transmitted to only half of the gametes (e.g. eggs or sperm). Killer meiotic drivers, however, kill developing gametes that do not inherit them, giving the driver a transmission advantage into the next generation. The molecular mechanisms used by these killers are not well understood. In this work, we analyzed how one killer meiotic driver, wtf4 from fission yeast, ensures targeted gamete (spore) killing. Previous work showed that wtf meiotic drivers encode a poison protein that is transmitted to all spores and an antidote protein that rescues only spores that inherit the locus. Here, we show that different timing of the expression of the two proteins, combined with differential inclusion of the proteins in developing spores, both contribute to targeted spore killing. We also demonstrate that wtf4 exploits an essential gene expression pathway, making it difficult for the genome to prevent this locus from being expressed and killing. This extends our knowledge both of how these genetic parasites act and how they are equipped to evade host suppression mechanisms.