Premium
A Genome‐wide Screen for Transcription Factors Involved in Programmed Cell Death in the Yeast, Candida albicans
Author(s) -
Cascio Vincent,
Bennett Richard,
Morschhauser Joachim,
Austriaco Nicanor
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.25.1_supplement.943.2
Subject(s) - candida albicans , programmed cell death , yeast , biology , gene , transcription factor , caspase , microbiology and biotechnology , genome , dimorphic fungus , apoptosis , saccharomyces cerevisiae , genetics , cell , transcription (linguistics) , linguistics , philosophy
Apoptosis, or programmed cell death, is a controlled form of cell suicide that often occurs when cells are exposed to stressful conditions. Candida albicans is a dimorphic human fungal pathogen that proliferates in either a yeast blastospore form or a filamentous hyphal form. We are performing a genetic screen for Candida genes that regulate apoptosis, using a library of 450 individual yeast strains, each of which has a different transcription factor that can be overexpressed with tetracycline. We have identified a number of genes, which when overexpressed, lead to the generation of reactive oxygen species, the activation of caspases, and to cell death. These genes may encode critical regulators of programmed cell death in yeast and other eukaryotes. [Supported by the following grants awarded to N. Austriaco: NIGMS R15 GM094712, NSF MRI‐R2 0959354, and NIH Grant 2 P20 RR016457 to the Rhode Island INBRE Program]