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Significance Protein toxins are used throughout biology as weapons in evolutionary conflicts. A fascinating example is killer yeast, which secrete virally encoded killer toxins that inhibit the growth of susceptible… Click to show full abstract
Significance Protein toxins are used throughout biology as weapons in evolutionary conflicts. A fascinating example is killer yeast, which secrete virally encoded killer toxins that inhibit the growth of susceptible yeast strains. Yeast in nature vary in their sensitivity to killer toxins, but to date, the basis of this variation has not been understood. We discovered that the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has a rapidly evolving defense factor against the killer toxin K28, which we name KTD1. KTD1 is a member of the DUP240 gene family. Although the yeast genome has many DUP240 genes, their cellular function has been enigmatic. Our results uncover the role of a DUP240 gene in defense against killer toxin as part of an evolutionary conflict.
Journal Title: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Year Published: 2023
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