title: Sensory input attenuation allows predictive sexual response in yeast.
abstract: Animals are known to adjust their sexual behaviour depending on mate competition. Here we report similar regulation for mating behaviour in a sexual unicellular eukaryote, the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We demonstrate that pheromone-based communication between the two mating types, coupled to input attenuation by recipient cells, enables yeast to robustly monitor relative mate abundance (sex ratio) within a mixed population and to adjust their commitment to sexual reproduction in proportion to their estimated chances of successful mating. The mechanism of sex-ratio sensing relies on the diffusible peptidase Bar1, which is known to degrade the pheromone signal produced by mating partners. We further show that such a response to sexual competition within a population can optimize the fitness trade-off between the costs and benefits of mating response induction. Our study thus provides an adaptive explanation for the known molecular mechanism of pheromone degradation in yeast.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology &LOEWE Research Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO), Karl-von-Frisch-Str. 16, D-35037 Marburg, Germany.|Zentrum für Molekulare Biologie der Universität Heidelberg, DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance, Im Neuenheimer Feld 282, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Alvaro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Banderas
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology &LOEWE Research Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO), Karl-von-Frisch-Str. 16, D-35037 Marburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Mihaly
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Koltai
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology &LOEWE Research Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO), Karl-von-Frisch-Str. 16, D-35037 Marburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Anders
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology &LOEWE Research Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO), Karl-von-Frisch-Str. 16, D-35037 Marburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Victor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sourjik
mesh_terms: D008954:Models, Biological; D010675:Pheromones / Q000378:metabolism; D012098:Reproduction; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000502:physiology*; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D010675:Pheromones; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins