Changes in electrophoretic mobility and lytic enzyme activity associated with development of flocculating ability in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Cells from stationary-phase cultures of two strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (3 and 20) failed to flocculate when grown in a complex or a chemically defined medium, while those of two other strains (11 and 13) flocculated when grown in either medium. Strain 30 flocculated when grown in complex but not defined medium and harvested from stationary-phase cultures. pH-electrophoretic mobility measurements on all five strains showed that mobility attributable to carboxyl groups usually increased as cultures progressed from the exponential to the stationary phase, while that caused by phosphate groups tended to decline. Acquisition of flocculating ability was accompanied in strains 11 and 30 by a slight increase in amidase activity, and greater increases compared with nonflocculent populations in activities of leucine aminopeptidase. alpha-mannosidase, and proteinase C. Activities of proteinases A and B showed no correlation with acquisition of flocculating ability.