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Letters to Nature

Nature 389, 90-93 (4 September 1997) | doi:10.1038/38015; Received 23 June 1997; Accepted 7 August 1997

Actin-dependent localization of an RNA encoding a cell-fate determinant in yeast

Peter A. Takizawa1,2, Anita Sil3, Jason R. Swedlow2, Ira Herskowitz3 & Ronald D. Vale

  1. Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Departments of
  2. Cellular Molecular Pharmacology
  3. and Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, SanFrancisco, California94143-0450, USA

Correspondence to: Ronald D. Vale Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to R.D.V. (e-mail: Email: vale@phy.ucsf.edu).

The cytoplasmic localization of messenger RNA creates an asymmetric distribution of proteins that specify cell fate during development in multicellular eukaryotes1,2. The protein Ash1 is a cell-fate determinant in budding yeast which localizes preferentially to the presumptive daughter nucleus, where it inhibits mating-type switching3,4.