Engineered Quorum Sensing Using Pheromone-Mediated Cell-to-Cell Communication in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Population-density-dependent control of gene expression, or quorum sensing, is widespread in nature and is used to coordinate complex population-wide phenotypes through space and time. We have engineered quorum sensing in S. cerevisiae by rewiring the native pheromone communication system that is normally used by haploid cells to detect potential mating partners. In our system, populations consisting of only mating type "a" cells produce and respond to extracellular alpha-type pheromone by arresting growth and expressing GFP in a population-density-dependent manner. Positive feedback quorum sensing dynamics were tuned by varying alpha-pheromone production levels using different versions of the pheromone-responsive FUS1 promoter as well as different versions of pheromone genes (mf alpha 1 or mf alpha 2). In a second system, pheromone, communication was rendered conditional upon the presence of aromatic amino acids in the growth medium by controlling alpha-pheromone expression with the aromatic amino acid responsive ARO9 promoter. In these circuits, pheromone communication and response could be fine-tuned according to aromatic amino acid type and concentration. The genetic control programs developed here are responsive to dynamic spatiotemporal and chemical cellular environments, resulting in up-regulation of gene expression. These programs could be used to control biochemical pathways for the production of fuels and chemicals that are toxic or place a heavy metabolic burden on cell growth.