Premium
The effect of tea tree oil and antifungal agents on a reporter for yeast cell integrity signalling
Author(s) -
Straede Andrea,
Corran Andy,
Bundy James,
Heinisch Jürgen J.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
yeast
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.923
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1097-0061
pISSN - 0749-503X
DOI - 10.1002/yea.1478
Subject(s) - biology , saccharomyces cerevisiae , microbiology and biotechnology , mutant , yeast , signal transduction , biochemistry , reporter gene , transcription factor , cell , cell growth , kinase , gene , gene expression
Cell integrity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is ensured by a rigid cell wall whose synthesis is controlled by a highly conserved MAP kinase signal transduction cascade. Stress at the cell surface is detected by a set of sensors and ultimately transmitted through this cascade to the transcription factor Rlm1, which governs expression of many genes encoding enzymes of cell wall biosynthesis. We here report on a number of versatile reporter constructs which link activation of a hybrid, Rlm1–lexA, by the MAP kinase Mpk1/Slt2 to the expression of the bacterial lacZ gene. This system was adapted to automated microwell screening and shown to be activated by a number of compounds inhibiting cell wall biosynthesis or interfering with plasma membrane function. In addition, we tested tea tree oil and two of its purified constituents (α‐terpineol, terpinen‐4‐ol) for their effects on growth and on cell integrity signalling using such reporter strains. Tea tree oil was found to inhibit growth of wild‐type and slg1/wsc1 mutant cells at a threshold of approximately 0.1% v/v, with the purified compounds acting already at half these concentrations. A mid2 deletion displayed hyper‐resistance. Tea tree oil also induces the signalling pathway in a dose‐dependent manner. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.