Killer yeast win epic battle of toxins
Normally peaceful, brewer’s yeast cells get ornery once a certain virus infiltrates them. The virus reprograms the infiltrated yeast cells to secrete a toxin that opens pores in neighboring yeast and kills them. Vintners rely on this feat to help clear out undesirable yeast strains that stray into their barrels.
Yet the killer-yeast cells themselves somehow become immune to the toxin.
Now, Steve A.N. Goldstein and his colleagues at Yale University have discovered the molecular mechanism behind this survival. Goldstein showed last year that the toxin snaps open a potassium-controlling channel in the yeast membrane. The yeast cells die by potassium leakage.