Saccharomyces cerevisiae can undergo filamentous growth in response to specific environmental stressors, particularly nitrogen-limitation, whereby cells undergo pseudohyphal differentiation, a process where cells transition from a singular ellipsoidal appearance to multicellular filamentous chains from the incomplete scission of the mother-daughter cells. Previously, it was demonstrated that filamentous growth in S. cerevisiae is co-regulated by multiple signaling networks, including the glucose-sensing RAS/cAMP-PKA and SNF pathways, the nutrient-sensing TOR pathway, the filamentous growth MAPK pathway, and the Rim101 pathway, and can be induced by quorum-sensing aromatic alcohols, such as 2-phenylethanol. However, the prevalent research on the yeast-pseudohyphal transition and its induction by aromatic alcohols in S. cerevisiae has been primarily limited to strain Σ1278b. Due to the prospective influence of quorum sensing on commercial fermentation, the native variation of yeast-to-filamentous phenotypic transition and its induction by 2-phenylethanol in commercial brewing strains was investigated. Image analysis software was exploited to enumerate the magnitude of whole colony filamentation in 16 commercial strains cultured on nitrogen-limiting SLAD medium; some supplemented with exogenous 2-phenylethanol. The results demonstrate that phenotypic switching is a generalized, highly varied response occurring only in select brewing strains. Nevertheless, strains exhibiting switching behavior altered their filamentation response to exogenous concentrations of 2-phenylethanol.

The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, also known as brewer's yeast, can undergo a reversible stress-responsive transition from individual ellipsoidal cells to chains of elongated cells in response to nitrogen- or carbon starvation. Whole colony morphology is frequently used to evaluate phenotypic switching response; however, quantifying two-dimensional top-down images requires each pixel to be characterized as belonging to the colony or background. While feasible for a small number of colonies, this labor-intensive assessment process is impracticable for larger datasets. The software tool HYPHAEdelity has been developed to semi-automate the assessment of two-dimensional whole colony images and quantify the magnitude of peripheral whole colony yeast filamentation using image analysis tools intrinsic to the OpenCV Python library. The software application functions by determining the total area of filamentous growth, referred to as the f-measure, by subtracting the area of the inner colony boundary from the outer-boundary area associated with hyphal projections. The HYPHAEdelity application was validated against automated and manually pixel-counted two-dimensional top-down images of S. cerevisiae colonies exhibiting varying degrees of filamentation. HYPHAEdelity's f-measure results were comparable to areas determined through a manual pixel enumeration method and found to be more accurate than other whole colony filamentation software solutions.