Yeast-to-hypha transition of Schizosaccharomyces japonicus in response to environmental stimuli.

ABSTRACT: Many fungal species are dimorphic, exhibiting both unicellular yeast-like and filamentous forms. Schizosaccharomyces japonicus, a member of the fission yeast clade, is one such dimorphic fungus. Here, we first identify fruit extracts as natural, stress-free, starvation-independent inducers of filamentation, which we use to describe the properties of the dimorphic switch. During the yeast-to-hypha transition, the cell evolves from a bipolar to a unipolar system with 10-fold accelerated polarized growth but constant width, vacuoles segregated to the nongrowing half of the cell, and hyper-lengthening of the cell. We demonstrate unusual features of S. japonicus hyphae: these cells lack a Spitzenkörper, a vesicle distribution center at the hyphal tip, but display more rapid cytoskeleton-based t

SUBMITTER: Kinnaer C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6589906 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature