CELL WALL REPLICATION IN SACCHAROMYCES CEREVISIAE

Abstract

Cell wall growth and bud formation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae was studied by labelling with fluorescent antibody. Labelled cells were grown in a glucose yeast extract broth and examined at 15-min intervals. The new cell wall was largely non-fluorescent while the old wall showed no reduction of fluorescence during growth of the bud. Bud formation was initiated as a small bulge on the cell wall, and further increase in size was accompanied by the formation of a constriction around the basal end which led to the separation of the bud from the mother yeast cell. The actively growing area of the bud was an annular band close to the base. It appears that the cell wall of the bud was, almost entirely, newly synthesized and contained very little old cell wall material. The process of wall synthesis is compared with the pattern found in several bacteria and with what is known of the process in other fungi.