ArticleCurrent biology : CB2008
Symmetry-breaking polarization driven by a Cdc42p GEF-PAK complex.
Article in Current biology : CB, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 139 papers.
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139 citing papers in PubMed, 254 citations in OpenAlex.
- Regulation of the Cell Wall Integrity pathway at the contact site between mating partners in yeast.The Journal of cell biology · 2026Article
- Global genetic rewiring during compensatory evolution in the yeast polarity network.EMBO reports · 2026Article
- The origin of septin ring size control in budding yeast.The EMBO journal · 2025Article
- Role of Gα-MAPK interaction in mating ofMolecular biology of the cell · 2025Article
- Negative feedback equalizes polarity sites in a multi-budding yeast.Current biology : CB · 2025Article
- Synthetic Forms Most Beautiful: Engineering Insights into Self-Organization.Physiology (Bethesda, Md.) · 2025Review
- The biochemical mechanism of Rho GTPase membrane binding, activation and retention in activity patterning.The EMBO journal · 2025Article
- Roles for the canonical polarity machinery in the de novo establishment of polarity in budding yeast spores.Molecular biology of the cell · 2025Article
- Roles for the canonical polarity machinery in thebioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Cdc42 mobility and membrane flows regulate fission yeast cell shape and survival.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Septin Organization and Dynamics for Budding Yeast Cytokinesis.Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Patterning of the cell cortex by Rho GTPases.Nature reviews. Molecular cell biology · 2024Review
- Redundancy and the role of protein copy numbers in the cell polarization machinery of budding yeast.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Particle-based simulations reveal two positive feedback loops allow relocation and stabilization of the polarity site during yeast mating.PLoS computational biology · 2023Article
- Chemical Memory with Discrete Turing Patterns Appearing in the Glycolytic Reaction.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- The Cdc42 GAP Rga6 promotes monopolar outgrowth of spores.The Journal of cell biology · 2023Article
- Mechanism of commitment to a mating partner inMolecular biology of the cell · 2022Article
- Orientation of Cell Polarity by Chemical Gradients.Annual review of biophysics · 2022Review
- Cla4p Kinase Activity Is Down-Regulated by Fus3p during Yeast Mating.Biomolecules · 2022Article
- A role for cell polarity in lifespan and mitochondrial quality control in the budding yeastiScience · 2022Article
79 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
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Abstract
backgroundIn 1952, Alan Turing suggested that spatial patterns could arise from homogeneous starting conditions by feedback amplification of stochastic fluctuations. One example of such self-organization, called symmetry breaking, involves spontaneous cell polarization in the absence of spatial cues. The conserved GTPase Cdc42p is essential for both guided and spontaneous polarization, and in budding yeast cells Cdc42p concentrates at a single site (the presumptive bud site) at the cortex. Cdc42p concentrates at a random cortical site during symmetry breaking in a manner that requires the scaffold protein Bem1p. The mechanism whereby Bem1p promotes this polarization was unknown.
resultsHere we show that Bem1p promotes symmetry breaking by assembling a complex in which both a Cdc42p-directed guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) and a Cdc42p effector p21-activated kinase (PAK) associate with Bem1p. Analysis of Bem1p mutants indicates that both GEF and PAK must bind to the same molecule of Bem1p, and a protein fusion linking the yeast GEF and PAK bypasses the need for Bem1p. Although mammalian cells lack a Bem1p ortholog, they contain more complex multidomain GEFs that in some cases can directly interact with PAKs, and we show that yeast containing an artificial GEF with similar architecture can break symmetry even without Bem1p.
conclusionsYeast symmetry-breaking polarization involves a GEF-PAK complex that binds GTP-Cdc42p via the PAK and promotes local Cdc42p GTP-loading via the GEF. By generating fresh GTP-Cdc42p near pre-existing GTP-Cdc42p, the complex amplifies clusters of GTP-Cdc42p at the cortex. Our findings provide mechanistic insight into an evolutionarily conserved pattern-forming positive-feedback pathway.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.