Flo11p adhesin required for meiotic differentiation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae minicolonies grown on plastic surfaces.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae grown on plastic surfaces formed organized structures, termed minicolonies, that consisted of a core of round (yeast-like) cells surrounded by chains of filamentous cells (pseudohyphae). Minicolonies had a much higher affinity for plastic than unstructured yeast communities growing on the same surface. Pseudohyphae at the surface of these colonies developed further into chains of asci.

The Rim101p/PacC pathway and alkaline pH regulate pattern formation in yeast colonies.

Multicellular organisms utilize cell-to-cell signals to build patterns of cell types within embryos, but the ability of fungi to form organized communities has been largely unexplored. Here we report that colonies of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae formed sharply divided layers of sporulating and nonsporulating cells. Sporulation initiated in the colony's interior, and this region expanded upward as the colony matured.

Improvement in survival and muscle function in an mdx/utrn(-/-) double mutant mouse using a human retinal dystrophin transgene.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a progressive muscle disease characterized by increasing muscle weakness and death by the third decade. mdx mice exhibit the underlying muscle disease but appear physically normal with ordinary lifespans, possibly due to compensatory expression of utrophin. In contrast, double mutant mice (mdx/utrn(-/-)), deficient for both dystrophin and utrophin die by approximately 3 months and suffer from severe muscle weakness, growth retardation, and severe spinal curvature.