Cell Polarity Controlled by Internal Enzyme
In a standard biology textbook, cells tend to look more or less the same from all sides. But in real life cells have fronts and backs, tops and bottoms, and they orient many of their structures according to this polarity explaining, for example, why yeast cells bud at one end and not the other.
Over the last few years, Rong Li, and her team at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research have figured out many important details of the basic biochemical mechanism that establishes cell polarity in yeast. Now, using cutting-edge microscopy and advanced mathematics, the team has discovered a surprising new twist. In the March issue of Nature Cell Biology, predoctoral researcher Arupratan Das, Li, and five colleagues report that, in yeast, an enzyme literally flips a switch by moving molecules called phospholipids from the outer to the inner layer of the cell membrane.
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