Molecular quantification of  Saccharomyces cerevisiae α-pheromone secretion.
Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast cells court each other by producing an attractive sex pheromone specific to their mating type. Cells detect the sex pheromone from potential mates using a well-defined intracellular signalling cascade that has become a model for studying signal transduction. In contrast, the factors contributing to the production of pheromone itself are poorly characterized, despite the widespread use of the S. cerevisiae α-pheromone secretion pathway in industrial fungal protein expression systems. Progress in understanding pheromone secretion has been hindered by a lack of a precise and quantitative pheromone production assay. Here, we present an ELISA-based method for the quantification of α-pheromone secretion. In the absence of pheromone from the opposite mating type, we found that each cell secretes over 550 mature α-pheromone peptides per second; 90% of this total was produced from MF α1. The addition of a-pheromone more than doubled total α-pheromone secretion. This technique offers several improvements on current methods for measuring α-pheromone production and will allow detailed investigation of the factors regulating pheromone production in yeast.
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Plön, Germany. rogers@evolbio.mpg.de
David W
DW
Rogers
Ellen
E
McConnell
Duncan
D
Greig
D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000379:methods; D000072235:Mating Factor; D009172:Mycology / Q000379:methods*; D010455:Peptides / Q000032:analysis*; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*
D010455:Peptides; D000072235:Mating Factor