Qualitative rather than quantitative phosphoregulation shapes the end of meiosis I in budding yeast

Exit from mitosis is brought about by dramatic changes in the phosphoproteome landscape. A drop in Cyclin-dependent kinase (Cdk) activity, the master regulatory kinase, and activation of counteracting phosphatases such as Cdc14 in budding yeast, results in ordered substrate dephosphorylation, allowing entry into a new cell cycle and replication licensing. In meiosis however, two cell divisions have to be executed without intermediate DNA replication, implying that global phosphorylation and dephosphorylation have to be adapted to the challenges of meiosis. Using a global time-resolved phosphoproteomics approach in budding yeast, we compared the phosphoproteome landscape between mitotic exit and the transition from meiosis I to meiosis II. We found that unlike exit from mitosis, Cdk phosphomotifs remain mostly stably phosphorylated at the end of meiosis I, whereas a majority of Cdk-unrelated motifs are reset by dephosphorylation. However, inducing an artificial drop of Cdk at metaphase of meiosis I leads to ordered substrate dephosphorylation, comparable to mitosis, indicating that phosphoregulation of substrates at the end of meiosis I is thus mainly qualitatively rather than quantitatively ordered.