Glutathione Released by Fission Yeast Supports Microbial Interactions

September 14, 2026

Beyond serving as a nutrient, glutathione helps maintain cell morphology and growth polarity

A joint research group from the RIKEN CSRS, the University of Tokyo, and Hiroshima University demonstrated that glutathione (GSH), a metabolite released into the extracellular space by fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, promotes growth recovery in the microbe’s gene deletion mutants with growth defects. In this study, the joint research group examined 3,420 viable gene deletion mutants and found 37 strains that showed growth defects when cultured alone but recovered growth near normal wild-type colonies. The analysis of the wild-type culture supernatant revealed that GSH is one of the metabolites that promote growth recovery. GSH, composed of glutamic acid, cysteine, and glycine, was used as a nutrient source to compensate for amino acid deficiencies in many gene deletion mutants. Notably, GSH also restored cell polarity and growth in a polarity-defective mutant even when its degradation into constituent amino acids was blocked, suggesting a physiological role beyond nutrient supplementation. This study provided an example how primary metabolites released by microorganisms can influence not only the nutrient availability but also the cell physiology of neighboring cells. These findings are expected to help us understand how cellular populations compensate for each other’s weaknesses through metabolites and design culture and fermentation technologies that utilize multiple types of microbes.

Original article: mSystems　DOI: 10.1128/msystems.00123-26; R. Yoshizumi, S. Miura, H. Matoba, G. Hirai, S. Asamizu, H. Onaka, Y. Yashiroda, A. Matsuyama, M. Yoshida, S. Nishimura,; "Glutathione acts as an exometabolite that promotes growth recovery in fission yeast with defects in amino acid metabolism and cell polarity".
Contact: Minoru Yoshida; Unit Leader
Ryotaro Yoshizumi; Junior Research Associate
Drug Discovery Seeds Development Unit