Premium
Large‐scale phenotypic analysis reveals identical contributions to cell functions of known and unknown yeast genes
Author(s) -
Bianchi Michele M.,
Ngo Saravuth,
Vandenbol Micheline,
Sartori Geppo,
Morlupi Alessandro,
Ricci Carlo,
Stefani Stefania,
Morlino Giovanni B.,
Hilger François,
Carignani Giovanna,
Slonimski Piotr P.,
Frontali Laura
Publication year - 2001
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.784
Subject(s) - biology , gene , phenotype , genetics , saccharomyces cerevisiae , hygromycin b , yeast , genome , orfs , nucleic acid , open reading frame , plasmid , peptide sequence
Sequencing of the yeast genome has shown that about one‐third of the yeast ORFs code for unknown proteins. Many other have similarity to known genes, but still the cellular functions of the gene products are unknown. The aim of the B1 Consortium of the EUROFAN project was to perform a qualitative phenotypic analysis on yeast strains deleted for functionally orphan genes. To this end we set up a simple approach to detect growth defects of a relatively large number of strains in the presence of osmolytes, ethanol, high temperature, inhibitory compounds or drugs affecting protein biosynthesis, phosphorylation level or nucleic acids biosynthesis. We have now developed this procedure to a semi‐quantitative level, we have included new inhibitors, such as hygromycin B, benomyl, metals and additional drugs interfering with synthesis of nucleic acids, and we have performed phenotypic analysis on the deleted strains of 564 genes poorly characterized in respect to their cellular functions. About 30% of the deleted strains showed at least one phenotype: many of them were pleiotropic. For many gene deletions, the linkage between the deletion marker and the observed phenotype(s) was studied by tetrad analysis and their co‐segregation was demonstrated. Co‐segregation was found in about two‐thirds of the analysed strains showing phenotype(s). Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.