Cell-fate decisions in mating pheromone stimulated yeast. A systems biology study

ARIEL CHERNOMORETZ; LUCIANA BRUNO; PABLO BALENZUELA; RODRIGO LAJE; RODRIGO BALTANÁS; ALICE KENNEDY; ALEJANDRO COLMAN LERNER

Montevideo

Workshop; ISCB Latin-America; 2010

Haploid Saccaromyces cerevisiae cells (budding yeast) exist in two mating types (a and a), which communicate via secreted pheromones. In a cells, α-factor pheromone triggers a fate decision to switch from normal growth to mating behavior, including induction of gene transcription and cell cycle arrest. In addition, when the cell cycle machinery commits cells to division, it blocks pheromone response. Given that the pheromone pathway and the cell cycle machinery can inhibit each other, we decided to study at the single cell level how S.cerevisiae makes the cell fate choice of dividing or preparing to mate using a combination of experimentation and modeling.