Mating medium

There are a variety of media that can be used to induce mating. All media have in common that they are low in Nitrogen source, which induces the pheromone pathway, followed by mating, and meiosis (see Merlini et al. 2013 or Seike & Niki 2022).

The medium we generally use in our lab for mating is EMMlowN. This is a synthetic defined medium that we use for all our experiments.

An easier and cheaper medium is one based on malt extract. This can be used for most purposes, but as it is not defined, batch differences can exists. This medium is therefore not advised for experimental use.

Note that for our long term evolution experiment, we used the medium PMG, which is not a low nitrogen medium. Measurements on mating in our evolved strains should be performed using this medium!