Tools for live-cell imaging of cytoskeletal and nuclear behavior in the unconventional yeast, Aureobasidium pullulans

Mol Biol Cell. 2024 Apr 1;35(4):br10. doi: 10.1091/mbc.E23-10-0388. Epub 2024 Mar 6.

Abstract

Aureobasidium pullulans is a ubiquitous fungus with a wide variety of morphologies and growth modes including "typical" single-budding yeast, and interestingly, larger multinucleate yeast than can make multiple buds in a single cell cycle. The study of A. pullulans promises to uncover novel cell biology, but currently tools are lacking to achieve this goal. Here, we describe initial components of a cell biology toolkit for A. pullulans, which is used to express and image fluorescent probes for nuclei as well as components of the cytoskeleton. These tools allowed live-cell imaging of the multinucleate and multibudding cycles, revealing highly synchronous mitoses in multinucleate yeast that occur in a semiopen manner with an intact but permeable nuclear envelope. These findings open the door to using this ubiquitous polyextremotolerant fungus as a model for evolutionary cell biology.

MeSH terms

  • Ascomycota* / metabolism
  • Aureobasidium
  • Cytoskeleton
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae*

Supplementary concepts

  • Aureobasidium pullulans