 When budding yeast are transferred to low-metal environments, they adopt a mother-restricted proliferation pattern characterised by asymmetric segregation of the vacuole and require the transcription repressor Y5. Deletion of WHI5 alleviates daughter cell division arrest but results in a lower final population size as cell division rate becomes slower, suggesting a new stress response strategy that prevents dilution of limiting resources within a subset of dividing cells to increase population growth. This article was authored by Nuitovrom, Lyosofa, Mirikami, and others.