Life within a community: benefit to yeast long-term survival.
Traditionally, living organisms have often been classified into two main categories: unicellular and multicellular. In recent years, however, the boundary between these two groups has become less strict and clear than was previously presumed. Studies on the communities formed by unicellular microorganisms have revealed that various properties and processes so far mainly associated with metazoa are also important for the proper development, survival and behaviour of muticellular microbial populations. In this review, we present various examples of this, using a yeast colony as representative of a structured organized microbial community. Among other things, we will show how the differentiation of yeast cells within a colony can be important for the long-term survival of a community under conditions of nutrient shortage, how colony development and physiology can be influenced by the environment, and how a group of colonies can synchronize their developmental changes. In the last section, we introduce examples of molecular mechanisms that can participate in some aspects of the behaviour of yeast populations.
Palková
Zdena
Z
Department of Genetics and Microbiology, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic. zdenap@natur.cuni.cz
Váchová
Libuse
L
D002448:Cell Adhesion; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002843:Chromatin / Q000502:physiology; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000502:physiology; D015966:Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal; D009024:Morphogenesis; D015003:Yeasts / Q000166:cytology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000502:physiology
D002843:Chromatin; D005656:Fungal Proteins