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Genome reduction in yeast involves programmed cell death
Author(s) -
Hurton Matthew,
Roblee Emily,
DiBiasio Eric,
Bennett Richard,
Austriaco Nicanor
Publication year - 2012
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.26.1_supplement.798.14
Subject(s) - programmed cell death , apoptosis , biology , yeast , ploidy , microbiology and biotechnology , stain , caspase , genome , cell , saccharomyces cerevisiae , gene , genetics , staining
Genome reduction is often associated with cell death. For example, in the yeast, Candida albicans, tetraploid strains undergo significant cell death when cultured on media that induce them to reduce their genomes to the diploid state. To investigate the mechanism of death in these cells, we have examined them to determine if the manifest any of the markers associated with programmed cell death. Dying cells were stained with dihydrorhodamine 123 and the FLICA reagent and imaged with a Zeiss 700 LSM confocal microscope. Both assays revealed that these dying cells contained reactive oxygen species (ROS) and activated caspases ‐‐ two markers for apoptotic cell death in yeast ‐‐ suggesting that these dying tetraploid cells are undergoing programmed cell death. Similarly, we have discovered that diploid Saccharomyces cells undergoing sporulation also stain positive for increased ROS and caspase activation. To better understand the mechanism of death, we are currently testing the ability of mutants lacking several apoptosis‐related genes to die as they undergo genome reduction. This research has been funded by the following grants to N. Austriaco: a faculty research (CAFR) award from Providence College, a faculty development award from the Rhode Island‐INBRE program, and by grant R15 GM094712 from the NIGMS.