Oscillatory stress stimulation uncovers an Achilles heel of the yeast MAPK signaling network

Cells must interpret environmental information that often changes over time. In our experiment, we systematically monitored the growth of yeast cells under various frequencies of oscillating osmotic stress. Growth was severely inhibited at a particular resonance frequency, at which cells show hyperactivated transcriptional stress responses. This behavior represents a sensory misperception: The cells incorrectly interpret oscillations as a...