Metabolic cycling in single yeast cells from unsynchronized steady-state populations limited on glucose or phosphate.

Singer Lab Publications:

Abstract:

Metabolic cycling in single yeast cells from unsynchronized steady-state populations limited on glucose or phosphate.

Silverman SJ, Petti AA, Slavov N, Parsons L, Briehof R, Thiberge SY, Zenklusen D, Gandhi SJ, Larson DR, Singer RH, Botstein D

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 107(15):6946-6951 (2010 April 13)

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Oscillations in patterns of expression of a large fraction of yeast genes are associated with the "metabolic cycle," usually seen only in prestarved, continuous cultures of yeast. We used FISH of mRNA in individual cells to test the hypothesis that these oscillations happen in single cells drawn from unsynchronized cultures growing exponentially in chemostats. Gene-expression data from synchronized cultures were used to predict coincident appearance of mRNAs from pairs of genes in the unsynchronized cells. Quantitative analysis of the FISH results shows that individual unsynchronized cells growing slowly because of glucose limitation or phosphate limitation show the predicted oscillations. We conclude that the yeast metabolic cycle is an intrinsic property of yeast metabolism and does not depend on either synchronization or external limitation of growth by the carbon source.