Using a push-pull system of repressors to match glucose transporters to extracellular glucose

A common cellular task is to match gene expression dynamically to a range of concentrations of a regulatory molecule. Studying glucose transport in budding yeast, we determine mechanistically how such matching occurs for seven hexose transporters. By combining time-lapse microscopy with mathematical modelling, we find that levels of transporters are history-dependent and are regulated by a push-pull system comprising two types of repressors. I will argue that matching is favoured by a rate-affinity trade-off and that the regulatory system allows yeast to import glucose rapidly enough to starve competitors.