What The Social Lives Of Brewer’s Yeast Say About Evolution
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 - 20:49
in Biology & Nature
An ingenious social behavior that mobilizes yeast cells to cooperate in protecting each other from stress, antibiotics and other dangers is driven by the activity of a single gene, scientists report in the journal Cell. The cooperating cells use the same gene, dubbed FLO1, as a marker for detecting "cheaters:" cells that try to profit from the group's protection without investing in the group's welfare.