Abstract: During anaphase, the cysteine protease separase cleaves cohesin and releases sister chromatids. In budding yeast, separase also has a crucial non-proteolytic role in triggering mitotic exit. Separase performs a similar non-catalytic function in frog and mouse oocytes through its physical interaction with cdk1. Vertebrate separase is therefore essential not only for homologue disjunction, but also for bringing about the end of meiosis I.