A modeling study of budding yeast colony formation and its relationship to budding pattern and aging
Authored by Yanli Wang, Wing-Cheong Lo, Ching-Shan Chou
Date Published: 2017
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005843
Sponsors:
Research Grants Council of Hong Kong
Platforms:
No platforms listed
Model Documentation:
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Abstract
Budding yeast, which undergoes polarized growth during budding and
mating, has been a useful model system to study cell polarization. Bud
sites are selected differently in haploid and diploid yeast cells:
haploid cells bud in an axial manner, while diploid cells bud in a
bipolar manner. While previous studies have been focused on the
molecular details of the bud site selection and polarity establishment,
not much is known about how different budding patterns give rise to
different functions at the population level. In this paper, we develop a
two-dimensional agent-based model to study budding yeast colonies with
cell-type specific biological processes, such as budding, mating, mating
type switch, consumption of nutrients, and cell death. The model
demonstrates that the axial budding pattern enhances mating probability
at an early stage and the bipolar budding pattern improves colony
development under nutrient limitation. Our results suggest that the
frequency of mating type switch might control the trade-off between
diploidization and inbreeding. The effect of cellular aging is also
studied through our model. Based on the simulations, colonies initiated
by an aged haploid cell show declined mating probability at an early
stage and recover as the rejuvenated offsprings become the majority.
Colonies initiated with aged diploid cells do not show disadvantage in
colony expansion possibly due to the fact that young cells contribute
the most to colony expansion.
Tags
polarity
growth
cell polarization
Cycle
Age
Protein
Division
Cytokinesis
Saccharomyces-cerevisiae
Replicative life-span