title: Increasing population growth by asymmetric segregation of a limiting resource during cell division.
abstract: We report that when budding yeast are transferred to low-metal environment, they adopt a proliferation pattern in which division is restricted to the subpopulation of mother cells which were born in rich conditions, before the shift. Mother cells continue to divide multiple times following the shift, generating at each division a single daughter cell, which arrests in G1. The transition to a mother-restricted proliferation pattern is characterized by asymmetric segregation of the vacuole to the mother cell and requires the transcription repressor Whi5. Notably, while deletion of WHI5 alleviates daughter cell division arrest in low-zinc conditions, it results in a lower final population size, as cell division rate becomes progressively slower. Our data suggest a new stress-response strategy, in which the dilution of a limiting cellular resource is prevented by maintaining it within a subset of dividing cells, thereby increasing population growth.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
authors.forename: Nurit
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Avraham
authors.forename: Ilya
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Soifer
authors.forename: Miri
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Carmi
authors.forename: Naama
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Barkai
mesh_terms: D002413:Cations, Divalent; D002452:Cell Count; D002455:Cell Division / Q000235:genetics*; D003300:Copper / Q000172:deficiency; D016193:G1 Phase / Q000235:genetics; D015966:Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal; D000090463:Iron Deficiencies; D010710:Phosphates / Q000172:deficiency; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D013312:Stress, Physiological; D014617:Vacuoles / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D015032:Zinc / Q000172:deficiency
chemical_list: D002413:Cations, Divalent; D010710:Phosphates; D012097:Repressor Proteins; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins; C508130:Whi5 protein, S cerevisiae; D003300:Copper; D015032:Zinc