Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

A mechanism to prevent transformation of the Whi3 mnemon into a prion

Yasmin Lau, Iuliia Parfenova, View ORCID ProfileJuha Saarikangas, View ORCID ProfileRichard A. Nichols, View ORCID ProfileYves Barral, View ORCID ProfileFabrice Caudron
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.13.990119
Yasmin Lau
1School of Biological Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Iuliia Parfenova
2Institute of Biochemistry, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Juha Saarikangas
3Helsinki Institute of Life Science HiLIFE, Helsinki, Finland
4Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Helsinki, Finland
5Neuroscience Center, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Juha Saarikangas
Richard A. Nichols
1School of Biological Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Richard A. Nichols
Yves Barral
2Institute of Biochemistry, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Yves Barral
  • For correspondence: f.caudron@qmul.ac.uk yves.barral@bc.biol.ethz.ch
Fabrice Caudron
1School of Biological Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Fabrice Caudron
  • For correspondence: f.caudron@qmul.ac.uk yves.barral@bc.biol.ethz.ch
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

In response to deceptive courtship, budding yeast cells escape pheromone induced cell cycle arrest through coalescence of the G1/S inhibitor Whi3 into a dominant inactive super-assembly. Strikingly, Whi3 super-assemblies remain stable over many cell cycles in the mother cells and are not passed on to the daughter cells. Thereby, Whi3 coalescence encodes memory, conferring to it the property of a mnemon (Whi3mnem), a protein which conformational change maintain a trait that is permanent in the mother cell but is not inherited by daughter cells. Mnemons share structural features with prions, which are self-templating protein conformations that are inherited by daughter cells. Yet, how the maintenance and asymmetric inheritance of Whi3mnem are achieved is unknown. Here, we report that Whi3mnem is closely associated with endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membranes and retained in the mother cell by the presence of lateral membrane diffusion barriers at the bud neck. Strikingly, barrier defects made Whi3mnem propagate in a mitotically stable manner, like a prion. Alike Whi3mnem, transformation of Whi3 into a prion required its poly-glutamine prion-like domain. Thus, we propose that Whi3mnem is in a self-templating state, lending temporal stability to the memory that it encodes, while its anchorage into the compartmentalized membranes of the ER ensures its confinement in the mother cell and prevents its infectious propagation. These results suggest that confined self-templating super-assembly is a powerful mechanism for the long-term encoding of information.

Footnotes

  • Figure 1 now includes a new analysis of the Constitutive Escapers frequencies. RA Nichols who did this work is added as an author.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted March 20, 2020.
Download PDF
Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
A mechanism to prevent transformation of the Whi3 mnemon into a prion
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
A mechanism to prevent transformation of the Whi3 mnemon into a prion
Yasmin Lau, Iuliia Parfenova, Juha Saarikangas, Richard A. Nichols, Yves Barral, Fabrice Caudron
bioRxiv 2020.03.13.990119; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.13.990119
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
A mechanism to prevent transformation of the Whi3 mnemon into a prion
Yasmin Lau, Iuliia Parfenova, Juha Saarikangas, Richard A. Nichols, Yves Barral, Fabrice Caudron
bioRxiv 2020.03.13.990119; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.13.990119

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Cell Biology
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (3686)
  • Biochemistry (7774)
  • Bioengineering (5668)
  • Bioinformatics (21245)
  • Biophysics (10563)
  • Cancer Biology (8162)
  • Cell Biology (11915)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (6738)
  • Ecology (10388)
  • Epidemiology (2065)
  • Evolutionary Biology (13843)
  • Genetics (9694)
  • Genomics (13056)
  • Immunology (8123)
  • Microbiology (19956)
  • Molecular Biology (7833)
  • Neuroscience (42973)
  • Paleontology (318)
  • Pathology (1276)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2256)
  • Physiology (3350)
  • Plant Biology (7208)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1309)
  • Synthetic Biology (1999)
  • Systems Biology (5528)
  • Zoology (1126)