AI Article Synopsis
- Cell differentiation in yeast species involves a process called mating-type switching, which is a reversible DNA-rearrangement mechanism.
- This switching occurs in two yeast types: budding yeast and fission yeast, each having a unique approach but similar overall functions.
- The review discusses the components and mechanisms of this process, including the formation of heterochromatin, the cleavage of loci, and the evolutionary implications and questions surrounding who switches mating type and why.
Article Abstract
Cell differentiation in yeast species is controlled by a reversible, programmed DNA-rearrangement process called mating-type switching. Switching is achieved by two functionally similar but structurally distinct processes in the budding yeast and the fission yeast In both species, haploid cells possess one active and two silent copies of the mating-type locus (a three-cassette structure), the active locus is cleaved, and synthesis-dependent strand annealing is used to replace it with a copy of a silent locus encoding the opposite mating-type information. Each species has its own set of components responsible for regulating these processes. In this review, we summarize knowledge about the function and evolution of mating-type switching components in these species, including mechanisms of heterochromatin formation, locus cleavage, donor bias, lineage tracking, and environmental regulation of switching. We compare switching in these well-studied species to others such as and the methylotrophic yeasts and We focus on some key questions: Which cells switch mating type? What molecular apparatus is required for switching? Where did it come from? And what is the evolutionary purpose of switching?
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| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5419495 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1534/genetics.117.202036 | DOI Listing |
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