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Functional role of intracellular Ca2+ pulses in the yeast pheromone response pathway

Determine the functional role of intracellular Ca2+ pulses in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae pheromone response pathway, specifically clarifying how these pulses contribute to signaling and response within the pathway.

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Background

In the mating response of yeast, cells exhibit intracellular Ca2+ pulses whose mean frequency increases with extracellular pheromone concentration. Experimental observations report that these pulses become indistinguishable above certain pheromone levels, indicating complex frequency dynamics within the pathway.

Despite these observations, the specific functional contribution of Ca2+ pulses to the pheromone response pathway remains unresolved. The authors hypothesize that pulsatile nuclear localization of certain transcription factors could be involved, as seen for Crz1 in calcium stress, and discuss how combining amplitude and frequency encoding may expand the range over which cells can distinguish pheromone concentrations.

References

Although the role of these pulses in the pheromone response pathway is not clear yet, it is conceivable that the nuclear localization of some of the TFs involved in the response be pulsatile as well as it has been observed in the response to 2+ stress in yeast which involves intracellular 2+ pulses and the pulsatile nuclear localization of the TF, Crz1.

— Qualitatively Distinct Signaling in Cells: The Informational Landscape of Amplitude and Frequency Encoding (2401.04089 - Givré et al., 8 Jan 2024) in Section 'Combining amplitude and frequency encoding to expand the range of distinguishable stimuli'