Chemotropism During Yeast Mating

Virtually all eukaryotic cells can grow in a polarized fashion in response to external signals. Cells can respond to gradients of chemoattractants or chemorepellents by directional growth, a process referred to as chemotropism. The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae undergoes chemotropic growth during mating, in which two haploid cells of opposite mating type grow toward one another. We have shown that mating pheromone gradients are essential for efficient mating in yeast and have examined the chemotropism defects of different yeast mutants. Two methods of assessing the ability of yeast strains to respond to pheromone gradients are presented here.