The mating pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been the focus of considerable research effort, yet many quantitative aspects of its regulation still remain unknown. Using an integrated approach involving experiments in microfluidic chips and computational modelling, we studied gene expression and phenotypic changes associated with the mating response under well-defined pheromone gradients. Here we report a combination of switch-like and graded pathway responses leading to stochastic phenotype determination in a specific range of pheromone concentrations. Furthermore, we show that these responses are critically dependent on mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)-mediated regulation of the activity of the pheromone-response-specific transcription factor, Ste12, as well as on the autoregulatory feedback of Ste12. In particular, both the switch-like characteristics and sensitivity of gene expression in shmooing cells to pheromone concentration were significantly diminished in cells lacking Kss1, one of the MAP kinases activated in the mating pathway. In addition, the dynamic range of gradient sensing of Kss1-deficient cells was reduced compared with wild type. We thus provide unsuspected functional significance for this kinase in regulation of the mating response.
The conserved RCN family of proteins can bind and directly regulate calcineurin, a Ca [Keywords: Calcineurin; calcium signaling; Rcn1p; DSCR1; MCIP; Supplemental material is available at http://www.genesdev.org.
An essential aspect of progression through mitosis is the sequential degradation of key mitotic regulators in a process that is mediated by the anaphase promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C) ubiquitin ligase [1]. In mitotic cells, two forms of the APC/C exist, APC/C(Cdc20) and APC/C(Cdh1), which differ in their associated WD-repeat proteins (Cdc20 and Cdh1, respectively), time of activation, and substrate specificity [2, 3]. How the WD-repeat proteins contribute to APC/C's activation and substrate specificity is not clear. Many APC/C substrates contain a destruction box element that is necessary for their ubiquitination [4-6]. One such APC/C substrate, the budding yeast anaphase inhibitor Pds1 (securin), is degraded prior to anaphase initiation in a destruction box and APC/C(Cdc20)-dependent manner [3, 7]. Here we find that Pds1 interacts directly with Cdc20 and that this interaction requires Pds1's destruction box. Our results suggest that Cdc20 provides a link between the substrate and the core APC/C and that the destruction box is essential for efficient Cdc20-substrate interaction. We also find that Pds1 does not interact with Cdh1. Finally, the effect of spindle assembly checkpoint activation, known to inhibit APC/C function [8], on the Pds1-Cdc20 interaction is examined.
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