Sensory input attenuation allows predictive sexual response in yeast

• Verfasst von: Banderas, Alvaro [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Koltai, Mihaly [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Anders, Alexander [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Sourjik, Victor [VerfasserIn]
• Titel: Sensory input attenuation allows predictive sexual response in yeast
• Verf.angabe: Alvaro Banderas, Mihaly Koltai, Alexander Anders & Victor Sourjik
• E-Jahr: 2016
• Jahr: 25 Aug 2016
• Umfang: 9 S.
• Fussnoten: Gesehen am 19.08.2020
• Titel Quelle: Enthalten in: Nature Communications
• Ort Quelle: [London] : Nature Publishing Group UK, 2010
• Jahr Quelle: 2016
• Band/Heft Quelle: 7(2016) Artikel-Nummer 12590, 9 Seiten
• ISSN Quelle: 2041-1723
• DOI: doi:10.1038/ncomms12590
• Datenträger: Online-Ressource
• Sprache: eng
• K10plus-PPN: 1727447433

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.