T. Chen et al., Multigenerational cortical inheritance of the Rax2 protein in orienting polarity and division in yeast, SCIENCE, 290(5498), 2000, pp. 1975-1978
Diploid yeast cells repeatedly polarize and bud from their poles, probably
because of highly stable marks of unknown composition. Here, Rax2, a membra
ne protein, was shown to behave as such a mark. The Rax2 protein itself was
inherited immutably at the cell cortex for multiple generations, and Rax2
was shown to have a half-life exceeding several generations. The persistent
inheritance of cortical protein markers would provide a means to couple a
cell's history to the future development of a precise morphogenetic form.