Mating reaction in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. VIII. Mating-type-specific substances responsible for sexual cell agglutination.

The agglutination factors of a and alpha mating types of Saccharomyces cerevisiae were solubilized from isolated cell-wall fractions by treatment with snail enzyme (Glusulase) and shown to be adsorbed specifically by cells of the opposite mating type, resulting in the loss of agglutinability of these cells. The agglutination factors of a and alpha types adsorbed by cells of the opposite mating type at pH 5.5 were eluted at pH 9.0. These factors were further purified on Sepharose 4B. From the elution pattern on Sepharose 4B, the molecular weights of the solubilized agglutination factors are estimated to be about one million. Thus purified agglutination factors contained carbohydrate and protein and were considerably resistant to heat treatment. Neutral protease of Bacillus subtilis inactivated both a and alpha type agglutination factors. Trypsin inactivated the alpha type agglutination factor only.