The scaffold protein Ste5 directly controls a switch-like mating decision in yeast

Mohan K. Malleshaiah, Vahid Shahrezaei, Peter S. Swain () and Stephen W. Michnick ()
Additional contact information
Mohan K. Malleshaiah: Département de Biochimie,
Vahid Shahrezaei: Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus
Peter S. Swain: McGill University, 3655 Promenade Sir William Osler, Montréal, Québec H3G 1Y6, Canada
Stephen W. Michnick: Département de Biochimie,

Nature, 2010, vol. 465, issue 7294, 101-105

Abstract: Speed dating in yeast Before mating, a Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast cell must detect a partner cell in the vicinity that is expressing large amounts of a sex pheromone. The pheromone detection system involves the MAP kinase signal transduction cascade, and the potential partner that secretes the highest pheromone levels is the one chosen. A study combining experiment and mathematical modelling shows that the mating decision is an all-or-none 'switch-like' response: for mating to initiate the pheromone must be at a critical concentration around the yeast cell and if this level is not reached, the yeast cell continues to reproduce asexually. The decision is taken quickly, within 2 minutes of initial contact with the pheromone. The scaffold protein Ste5, which binds MAPK cascade components in an active complex, is the direct modulator of the pheromone's action. If similar ultrasensitive mechanisms occur in mammalian signalling pathways, they may be particularly vulnerable to mutations that lead to disease and could thus prove to be important therapeutic targets.

Date: 2010
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature08946 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:465:y:2010:i:7294:d:10.1038_nature08946

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature08946

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().