Journal Article
mSphere, vol. 3, iss. 6, 2018
Authors
Kyle R. Pomraning, Erin L. Bredeweg, Eduard J. Kerkhoven, Kerrie Barry, Sajeet Haridas, Hope Hundley, Kurt LaButti, Anna Lipzen, Mi Yan, Jon K. Magnuson, Blake A. Simmons, Igor V. Grigoriev, Jens Nielsen, Scott E. Baker, Aaron P. Mitchell
Abstract
Many yeasts undergo a morphological transition from yeast-to-hyphal growth in response to environmental conditions. We used forward and reverse genetic techniques to identify genes regulating this transition in
Yarrowia lipolytica
. We confirmed that the transcription factor Yl
msn2
is required for the transition to hyphal growth and found that signaling by the histidine kinases Yl
chk1
and Yl
nik1
as well as the MAP kinases of the HOG pathway (Yl
ssk2
, Yl
pbs2
, and Yl
hog1
) regulates the transition to hyphal growth. These results suggest that
Y. lipolytica
transitions to hyphal growth in response to stress through multiple kinase pathways. Intriguingly, we found that a repetitive portion of the genome containing telomere-like and rDNA repeats may be involved in the transition to hyphal growth, suggesting a link between this region and the general stress response.
