Abstract:
Yeast can undergo cell death accompanied by cellular markers of apoptosis like accumulation of reactive oxygen species, DNA fragmentation, caspase activation and chromatin condensation. Here we investigate a link between yeast apoptosis and membrane fusion.
We also investigate NaCl induced SRO-family related apoptosis in yeast.
We observe that NaCl induced loss in viability of wild type cells is YCA1 dependent. Furthermore, yeast cells with a deletion of the SRO7 encoded tumor suppressor homologue show increased sensitivity to NaCl induced apoptosis dependent on YCA1. If SRO77, which is a homologue of SRO7, is deleted salt stress induced apoptosis is caspase independent.
Furthermore, I was successful in triggering yeast apoptosis using human genes, which induce apoptosis in mammalian cells.