An Evolutionarily Conserved Prion-like Element Converts Wild Fungi from Metabolic Specialists to Generalists
[GAR[superscript +]] is a protein-based element of inheritance that allows yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) to circumvent a normal hallmark of their biology: extreme metabolic specialization for glucose fermentation. When glucose is present, even in trace quantities, yeast will not use other carbon...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2016
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/105721 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1307-882X |
| Summary: | [GAR[superscript +]] is a protein-based element of inheritance that allows yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) to circumvent a normal hallmark of their biology: extreme metabolic specialization for glucose fermentation. When glucose is present, even in trace quantities, yeast will not use other carbon
sources. [GAR[superscript +]] allows cells to circumvent this “glucose repression.” [GAR[superscript +]] is induced in yeast by a factor secreted by bacteria inhabiting their environment. We report that the de novo rates of [GAR[superscript +]] appearance correlate with the yeast’s ecological niche. Evolutionarily distant fungi possess similar epigenetic elements that are also induced by bacteria. As expected for a mechanism whose adaptive value originates from the selective pressures of life in biological communities, the ability of bacteria to induce [GAR[superscript +]] and the ability of yeast to respond to bacterial signals have been extinguished repeatedly during the extended monoculture of domestication. Thus, [GAR[superscript +]] is a broadly conserved adaptive strategy that links environmental and social cues to heritable changes in metabolism. |
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