Sensory input attenuation allows predictive sexual response in yeast

Alvaro Banderas (), Mihaly Koltai, Alexander Anders and Victor Sourjik ()
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Alvaro Banderas: Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology & LOEWE Research Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO)
Mihaly Koltai: Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology & LOEWE Research Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO)
Alexander Anders: Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology & LOEWE Research Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO)
Victor Sourjik: Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology & LOEWE Research Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO)

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Animals are known to adjust their sexual behaviour depending on mate competition. Here we report similar regulation for mating behaviour in a sexual unicellular eukaryote, the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We demonstrate that pheromone-based communication between the two mating types, coupled to input attenuation by recipient cells, enables yeast to robustly monitor relative mate abundance (sex ratio) within a mixed population and to adjust their commitment to sexual reproduction in proportion to their estimated chances of successful mating. The mechanism of sex-ratio sensing relies on the diffusible peptidase Bar1, which is known to degrade the pheromone signal produced by mating partners. We further show that such a response to sexual competition within a population can optimize the fitness trade-off between the costs and benefits of mating response induction. Our study thus provides an adaptive explanation for the known molecular mechanism of pheromone degradation in yeast.

Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms12590

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