Meiosis is an important step for sexual reproduction in most eukaryotes, it is also a special kind of cell division process. The decision of cell to undergo meiosis is regulated by multiple signals, such as mating-type status, nutrient starvation, and respiration. However, the detailed mechanism of respiration in meiotic initiation is still illusive. Here, we show that components of respiratory chain (Complex I-V) play essential role in meiotic initiation during budding yeast sporulation. Any functional defects of a complex I component, Ndi1p, resulted in the abolishment of sporulation. Further studies show that respiratory deficient caused the failure of premeiotic DNA replication due to insufficient Ime1 expression. And it is the respiration that alkalizes the medium to activate Rim101p, then inhibit a negative regulator of Ime1p, Smp1p, to promote the initiation of meiosis. All together, our results confirm the close relationship between respiration and sporulation, and discover a specific pathway which might be regulated by respiration during meiotic initiation.