Stimulation of yeast mating hormone activity by synthetic oligopeptides

The biological activities of two synthetic oligopeptides (His-Trp-Leu-Gln-Leu and Trp-Leu-Gln-Leu), which represent part of the primary structure of the mating hormone alpha factor from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, were studied. The peptides did not exhibit hormonal activity by themselves. However, both intensified the mating-type-specific inhibitory effect of native alpha factor on the division of haploid cells of mating type a. Random peptides or mixtures of the corresponding amino acids did not stimulate alpha factor activity. Likewise, a synthetic peptide representing another part of the alpha factor sequence was ineffective. In addition, the activity of a factor, the mating hormone produced by a cells, was not influenced by the synthetic peptides, indicating that the compounds specifically affect the interaction between alpha factor and its target cells. The analysis of the utilization of the tetrapeptide as a source of amino acids for auxotrophic a strains suggested an extracellular site of action for the observed enhancement of alpha factor activity.