Transition between fermentation and respiration determines history-dependent behavior in fluctuating carbon sources
- VIB-KU Leuven Center for Microbiology, Belgium
- University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Abstract
Cells constantly adapt to environmental fluctuations. These physiological changes require time and therefore cause a lag phase during which the cells do not function optimally. Interestingly, past exposure to an environmental condition can shorten the time needed to adapt when the condition re-occurs, even in daughter cells that never directly encountered the initial condition. Here, we use the molecular toolbox of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to systematically unravel the molecular mechanism underlying such history-dependent behavior in transitions between glucose and maltose. In contrast to previous hypotheses, the behavior does not depend on persistence of proteins involved in metabolism of a specific sugar. Instead, presence of glucose induces a gradual decline in the cells' ability to activate respiration, which is needed to metabolize alternative carbon sources. These results reveal how trans-generational transitions in central carbon metabolism generate history-dependent behavior in yeast, and provide a mechanistic framework for similar phenomena in other cell types.
Data availability
The RNA-seq and BAR-seq data-sets are deposited in GEO. The GEO accession number of BAR-Seq and RNA-Seq data are GSE116505 and GSE116246 respectively.
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BAR-Seq to study history-dependent behaviorPublicly available at the NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus (accession no: GSE116505).
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Transition between fermentation and respiration determines history-dependent behavior in fluctuating carbon sourcesPublicly available at the NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus (accession no: GSE116246).
Article and author information
Author details
Lieselotte Vermeersch
Julian M J Pietsch
Kevin J Verstrepen
Funding
Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
- Bram Cerulus
- Lieselotte Vermeersch
Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie
- Kevin J Verstrepen
European Research Counsil (CoG682009)
- Bram Cerulus
- Abbas Jariani
- Gemma Perez-Samper
- Kevin J Verstrepen
Agentschap Innoveren & Ondernemen
- Kevin J Verstrepen
AB-InBev-Baillet Latour Fund
- Kevin J Verstrepen
Human Frontier Science Program (246 RGP0050/2013)
- Abbas Jariani
- Peter S Swain
- Kevin J Verstrepen
SULSA Postdoctoral Exchange Scheme
- Julian M J Pietsch
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
© 2018, Cerulus et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Transition between fermentation and respiration determines history-dependent behavior in fluctuating carbon sources
eLife 7:e39234.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.39234
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