How to survive within a yeast colony: Change metabolism or cope with stress?
Yeast colonies growing on solid medium begin at a particular point in their development to produce volatile ammonia and to alkalize their surroundings.1 Ammonia serves as a long-range signal between neighboring colonies and was shown to influence various aspects of colony biology including metabolic reprogramming and differentiation. In a recent paper we presented the impact of deleting of key stress defense enzymes on ammonia signaling and colony development. New findings suggest that it is not stress defense, but rather proper development guided by ammonia signaling and related metabolic changes that are important factors in the long-term survival of a colony cell population. Cap M, Vachova L, Palkova Z. Yeast colony survival depends on metabolic adaptation and cell differentiation rather than on stress defense. J. Biol. Chem.
