The SRD2 gene is involved in Saccharomyces cerevisiae morphogenesis

Saccharomyces cerevisiae presents two alternative vegetative forms of growth, switching between yeast forms to pseudohyphal forms depending on the specific environmental conditions. To identify genes involved in cell wall morphogenesis, a haploid S. cerevisiae monomorphic mutant, W27, which exhibits pseudohyphal growth in the absence of the normal external signals that induce the formation of filamentous forms, was characterized. S. cerevisiae W27 did not demonstrate agar-invasive growth, a characteristic of most filamentous strains. The mutant wall had no obvious alterations with respect to mannan and glucan content, but had three times more chitin than the parental strain. This produced an increase in the amount of proteins linked covalently to chitin. The same protein species, however, were released from the cell walls of the mutant and the parental strain. The W27 mutation was complemented with a genomic library and the SRD2/ECM23 gene was identified as the complementing ORE Transformation of S. cerevisiae W27 with the Ycplac33 vector carrying the SRD2 gene produced the original phenotype. These results suggest that the SRD2 gene acts as a negative regulator of pseudohyphal growth.