Regulated yeast death—in colonies

Hints of regulated cell death in yeast have been reported in recent years. On page 711, Váchová and Palková report evidence that ammonia signaling triggers death in specific areas within aging colonies. Colonies that lack the ability for such signaling have widespread cell death and die off sooner.

Recent years have seen an increase in the study of yeast colonies to see how yeast cells may or may not cooperate in nature. For example, ammonia signaling is now known to trigger metabolic changes in yeast as the colony ages.Now, Váchová and Palková find that cell growth and death occur in a predictable but uneven manner in a colony. By picking cells from the center and periphery of colonies at set time points, they find that cells proliferate and die in both the center...