PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Morgan Delarue
AU  - Gregory Poterewicz
AU  - Ori Hoxha
AU  - Jessica Choi
AU  - Wonjung Yoo
AU  - Jona Kayser
AU  - Liam Holt
AU  - Oskar Hallatschek
TI  - The SMuSh pathway is essential for survival during growth-induced compressive mechanical stress
AID  - 10.1101/150789
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 150789
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/16/150789.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/16/150789.full
AB  - Cells that proliferate in a confined environment eventually build up mechanical compressive stress. For example, mechanical pressure can emerge from the growth of cancer cells or microbes in their natural settings [1–4]. However, while the biological effects of tensile stress have been extensively studied [5–10], little is known about how cells sense and respond to mechanical compression. By combining genetic analysis with microfluidic approaches, we discovered that compressive stress is sensed through a module consisting of the mucin Msb2 and Sho1, which is one of the two osmosensing pathways in budding yeast [11]. This signal is transmitted via the MAP kinase Ste11 to the cell wall integrity pathway. We term this mechanosensitive pathway the SMuSh pathway, for Ste11 through Mucin / Sho1 pathway. The SMuSh pathway is necessary for G1 arrest and cell survival in response to growth-induced pressure. Our study demonstrates the ability of budding yeast to specifically respond to mechanical compressive stress raising the question of whether homologous pathways confer mechano-sensitivity in higher eukaryotes.