Assistant Professor, Truman State University, MO
Saccharomyces cerevisiae is one of the most studied eukaryotic microorganisms. In fact, this microorganism serves as model for the molecular study of eukaryotic cell function and structure. For this reason, this yeast will be used to study the molecular response of cells to DNA damage induced by ultra violet (UV) light. It is known that UV light induces pyrimidine dimerization in DNA and that the repair mechanisms activated in response are base excision repair (BER), UV-damaged DNA endonuclease-dependent excision repair (UVER), nucleotide excision repair (NER), recombinational repair of double-strand breaks, and the photolyase mechanism. Moreover, the expression of the genes regulating DNA repair systems has been found to occur during the G1-phase of the cell cycle. The S-phase, on the other hand, is known to be a “damage tolerant” phase, where no DNA repair is conducted. The proteins identified and the genes associated in the response mechanisms have not been fully understood. Therefore, the use of yeast as a model to study the molecular response to DNA damage induced by UV light (a very common DNA aggressor and cancer inducer in eukaryotic cells) is a great opportunity to learn using an extensively studied microorganism that is easy and safe for students to manipulate in the classroom setting. Yeasts were synchronized to G1 phase and UV irradiated previous RNA extraction. In this experiment, genes with significant increased expression will be identified. This dataset can be used to analyze gene expression that identifies other metabolic and physiologic responses to UV radiation.
Materials are under development.
Materials are under development.
