Work has begun to study the products of the BUD genes directly. Recent work suggests that BUD3 protein physically marks structures in the mother-daughter neck as sites for axial budding. Work on these proteins and others will intensify in order to develop and test plausible mechanisms for how the budding patterns could be produced. Beyond yeast, our interests include related problems of spatial organization, such as the orientation of mitotic cleavage planes during animal embryonic development or during plant morphogenesis. Another interest is polarity establishment in systems such as T-cells interacting with targets, neuronal cells extending axons, and migratory cells crawling on a surface.
Evidence exists to suggest that common molecules control polarity in yeast and in higher cells.
We shall pursue this possibility. Korinek WS, Bi E, Epp JA, Wang L, Ho J, Chant J. Cyk3, a novel SH3-domain protein, affects cytokinesis in yeast. Korinek WS, Copeland MJ, Chaudhuri A, Chant J. Molecular linkage underlying microtubule orientation toward cortical sites in yeast. Chant J. Cell polarity in yeast. Annu Rev Cell Dev Biol.