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Updated: May 17, 2026

Microscopy of Fission Yeast Sexual Lifecycle
Published on: March 9, 2016
Signaling regulated endocytosis and exocytosis lead to mating pheromone concentration dependent morphologies in yeast
Ching-Shan Chou1, Travis I Moore2,3, Steven D Chang3
1Department of Mathematics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
Abstract:
Polarized cell morphogenesis requires actin cytoskeleton rearrangement for polarized transport of proteins, organelles and secretory vesicles, which fundamentally underlies cell differentiation and behavior. During yeast mating, Saccharomyces cerevisiae responds to extracellular pheromone gradients by extending polarized projections, which are likely maintained through vesicle transport to (exocytosis) and from (endocytosis) the membrane. We experimentally demonstrate that the projection morphology is pheromone concentration-dependent, and propose the underlying mechanism through mathematical modeling. The inclusion of membrane flux and dynamically evolving cell boundary into our yeast mating signaling model shows good agreement with experimental measurements, and provides a plausible explanation for pheromone-induced cell morphology.
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