scholarly journals Evolutionary trade-offs between unicellularity and multicellularity in budding yeast

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennie J. Kuzdzal-Fick ◽  
Lin Chen ◽  
Gábor Balázsi

ABSTRACTMulticellular organisms appeared on Earth through several independent major evolutionary transitions. Are such transitions reversible? Addressing this fundamental question entails understanding the benefits and costs of multicellularity versus unicellularity. For example, some wild yeast strains form multicellular clumps, which might be beneficial in stressful conditions, but this has been untested. Here we show that unicellular yeast evolves from clump-forming ancestors by propagating samples from suspension after larger clumps have settled. Unicellular yeast strains differed from their clumping ancestors mainly by mutations in the AMN1 (Antagonist of Mitotic exit Network) gene. Ancestral yeast clumps were more resistant to freeze/thaw, hydrogen peroxide, and ethanol stressors than their unicellular counterparts, while unicellularity was advantageous without stress. These findings inform mathematical models, jointly suggesting a trade-off between the benefits and downsides of multicellularity, causing bet-hedging by regulated phenotype switching as a survival strategy in unexpected stress.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramos-Pérez Cristina ◽  
Grant W Brown ◽  
Machín Félix

AbstractTopoisomerase II (Top2) is the essential protein that resolves DNA catenations. When the Top2 is inactivated, mitotic catastrophe results from massive entanglement of chromosomes. Top2 is also the target of many first-line anticancer drugs, the so-called Top2 poisons. Often, tumours become resistant to these drugs by downregulating Top2. Here, we have compared two isogenic yeast strains carrying top2 thermosensitive alleles that differ in their resistance to Top2 poisons, the broadly-used poison-sensitive top2-4 and the poison-resistant top2-5. We found that top2-5 transits through anaphase faster than top2-4. In order to define the biological importance of this difference, we performed genome-scale Synthetic Gene Array (SGA) analyses during chronic sublethal Top2 downregulation and acute, yet transient, Top2 inactivation. We find that downregulation of cell cycle progression, especially the Mitotic Exit Network (MEN), protects against Top2 deficiency. In all conditions, genetic protection was stronger in top2-5, and this correlated with destabilization of anaphase bridges by execution of MEN. We suggest that mitotic exit may be a therapeutic target to hypersensitize cancer cells carrying downregulating mutations in TOP2.


Author(s):  
Laura E. Bagamery ◽  
Quincey A. Justman ◽  
Ethan C. Garner ◽  
Andrew W. Murray

ABSTRACTTo grow and divide, cells must extract resources from dynamic and unpredictable environments. Organisms thus possess redundant metabolic pathways for distinct contexts. In budding yeast, ATP can be produced from carbon by mechanisms that prioritize either speed (fermentation) or yield (respiration). We find that in the absence of predictive cues, cells vary in their intrinsic ability to switch metabolic strategies from fermentation to respiration. We observe subpopulations of yeast cells which either rapidly adapt or enter a shock state characterized by deformation of many cellular structures, including mitochondria. This capacity to adapt is a bimodal and heritable state. We demonstrate that metabolic preparedness confers a fitness advantage during an environmental shift but is costly in a constant, high-glucose environment, and we observe natural variation in the frequency of prepared cells across wild yeast strains. These experiments suggest that bet-hedging has evolved in budding yeast.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-175
Author(s):  
Claudia M. Buch ◽  
Linda S. Goldberg

Global activities of banks are a core manifestation of broader patterns of globalization of production, trade, and finance. This article reviews the extensive recent empirical and theoretical literature on global banking, emphasizing the careful empirical analyses that incorporate key dimensions of heterogeneity among borrowers and lenders, and across activities. The actions of globally active banks are consequential, with cost and benefit trade-offs that differ during their lifetimes and at times of stress. Both research and policymaking around global banking benefit from improved infrastructures around collection of and access to granular data and repositories of evaluation studies. Although overall positive contributions from welfare perspectives arise from the activities of global banks, these organizations require appropriately targeted policy frameworks and oversight.


eLife ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill Elaine Falk ◽  
Dai Tsuchiya ◽  
Jolien Verdaasdonk ◽  
Soni Lacefield ◽  
Kerry Bloom ◽  
...  

In budding yeast, if the spindle becomes mispositioned, cells prevent exit from mitosis by inhibiting the mitotic exit network (MEN). The MEN is a signaling cascade that localizes to spindle pole bodies (SPBs) and activates the phosphatase Cdc14. There are two competing models that explain MEN regulation by spindle position. In the 'zone model', exit from mitosis occurs when a MEN-bearing SPB enters the bud. The 'cMT-bud neck model' posits that cytoplasmic microtubule (cMT)-bud neck interactions prevent MEN activity. Here we find that 1) eliminating cMT– bud neck interactions does not trigger exit from mitosis and 2) loss of these interactions does not precede Cdc14 activation. Furthermore, using binucleate cells, we show that exit from mitosis occurs when one SPB enters the bud despite the presence of a mispositioned spindle. We conclude that exit from mitosis is triggered by a correctly positioned spindle rather than inhibited by improper spindle position.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (7A) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robyn Jerdan ◽  
Scott Cameron ◽  
Emily Donaldson ◽  
Andrew Spiers

Static microcosms are a well-established system used to study the adaptive radiation of Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25 and the adaptive biofilm-forming mutants known as the Wrinkly Spreaders (WS). We have developed this system to investigate selection within multi-species communities using a soil-wash inoculum dominated by biofilm-competent pseudomonads. Here we present community and isolate-level analyses of one serial-transfer experiment in which replicate populations were selected for over ten transfers and 60 days. Although no significant trends in improving community biofilm characteristics or total microcosm productivity were observed, a significant shift in biofilm-formation and microcosm growth by individual isolates recovered from the initial soil-wash inoculum and final transfers indicated that these communities were subject to selection for growth in these microcosms. Surprisingly, the fitness of the archetypal WS was poor when competing against community samples, and having compared the cell densities in the low-O2 region of liquid column below the biofilm, we suggest that part of the community’s fitness advantage comes from the ability to colonise this under-utilised niche as well as to compete at the A-L interface. Samples from the community biofilms and the low-O2 region were able to re-colonize both niches and many final transfer isolates grew throughout the liquid column as well as forming A-L interface biofilms. This suggests that there is a trade-off between fast growth under highly competitive conditions at the A-L interface and slower growth with less competition in the low-O2 region, with some isolates taking a bet-hedging approach a colonizing both niches in our microcosm system.


2021 ◽  
Vol 288 (1942) ◽  
pp. 20201905
Author(s):  
Jesús Alcázar-Treviño ◽  
Mark Johnson ◽  
Patricia Arranz ◽  
Victoria E. Warren ◽  
Carlos J. Pérez-González ◽  
...  

Echolocating animals that forage in social groups can potentially benefit from eavesdropping on other group members, cooperative foraging or social defence, but may also face problems of acoustic interference and intra-group competition for prey. Here, we investigate these potential trade-offs of sociality for extreme deep-diving Blainville′s and Cuvier's beaked whales. These species perform highly synchronous group dives as a presumed predator-avoidance behaviour, but the benefits and costs of this on foraging have not been investigated. We show that group members could hear their companions for a median of at least 91% of the vocal foraging phase of their dives. This enables whales to coordinate their mean travel direction despite differing individual headings as they pursue prey on a minute-by-minute basis. While beaked whales coordinate their echolocation-based foraging periods tightly, individual click and buzz rates are both independent of the number of whales in the group. Thus, their foraging performance is not affected by intra-group competition or interference from group members, and they do not seem to capitalize directly on eavesdropping on the echoes produced by the echolocation clicks of their companions. We conclude that the close diving and vocal synchronization of beaked whale groups that quantitatively reduces predation risk has little impact on foraging performance.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrin Hammerschmidt ◽  
Giddy Landan ◽  
Fernando Domingues Kümmel Tria ◽  
Jaime Alcorta ◽  
Tal Dagan

AbstractThe transition from unicellular to multicellular organisms is one of the most significant events in the history of life. Key to this process is the emergence of Darwinian individuality at the higher level: groups must become single entities capable of reproduction for selection to shape their evolution. Evolutionary transitions in individuality are characterized by cooperation between the lower level entities and by division of labor. Theory suggests that division of labor may drive the transition to multicellularity by eliminating the trade-off between two incompatible processes that cannot be performed simultaneously in one cell. Here we examine the evolution of the most ancient multicellular transition known today, that of cyanobacteria, where we reconstruct the sequence of ecological and phenotypic trait evolution. Our results show that the prime driver of multicellularity in cyanobacteria was the expansion in metabolic capacity offered by nitrogen fixation, which was accompanied by the emergence of the filamentous morphology and succeeded by a reproductive life cycle. This was followed by the progression of multicellularity into higher complexity in the form of differentiated cells and patterned multicellularity.Significance StatementThe emergence of multicellularity is a major evolutionary transition. The oldest transition, that of cyanobacteria, happened more than 3 to 3.5 billion years ago. We find N2 fixation to be the prime driver of multicellularity in cyanobacteria. This innovation faced the challenge of incompatible metabolic processes since the N2 fixing enzyme (nitrogenase) is sensitive to oxygen, which is abundantly found in cyanobacteria cells performing photosynthesis. At the same time, N2-fixation conferred an adaptive benefit to the filamentous morphology as cells could divide their labour into performing either N2-fixation or photosynthesis. This was followed by the culmination of complex multicellularity in the form of differentiated cells and patterned multicellularity.


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