title: An evolutionarily conserved prion-like element converts wild fungi from metabolic specialists to generalists.
abstract: [GAR(+)] is a protein-based element of inheritance that allows yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) to circumvent a hallmark of their biology: extreme metabolic specialization for glucose fermentation. When glucose is present, yeast will not use other carbon sources. [GAR(+)] allows cells to circumvent this "glucose repression." [GAR(+)] is induced in yeast by a factor secreted by bacteria inhabiting their environment. We report that de novo rates of [GAR(+)] 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(+)] and the ability of yeast to respond to bacterial signals have been extinguished repeatedly during the extended monoculture of domestication. Thus, [GAR(+)] is a broadly conserved adaptive strategy that links environmental and social cues to heritable changes in metabolism.
authors.affiliation: Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA; Departments of Chemical and Systems Biology and of Developmental Biology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Jarosz
authors.affiliation: Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA; Department of Pathology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Center for Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Alex K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Lancaster
authors.affiliation: Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA; Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Jessica C S
authors.initials: JCS
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.affiliation: Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA; Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, USA. Electronic address: lindquist_admin@wi.mit.edu.
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lindquist
mesh_terms: D001203:Ascomycota / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D001419:Bacteria / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D055167:Dekkera / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D005947:Glucose / Q000378:metabolism*; D010641:Phenotype; D011328:Prions / Q000378:metabolism*; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D011328:Prions; D005947:Glucose