Project description:Aneuploidy and epigenetic alterations have long been associated with carcinogenesis, but it was unknown whether aneuploidy could disrupt the epigenetic states required for cellular differentiation. In this study, we found that ~3% of random aneuploid karyotypes in yeast disrupt the stable inheritance of silenced chromatin during cell proliferation. Karyotype analysis revealed that this phenotype was significantly correlated with gains of chromosomes III and X. Chromosome X disomy alone was sufficient to disrupt chromatin silencing and yeast mating-type identity as indicated by a lack of growth response to pheromone. The silencing defect was not limited to the cryptic mating type loci but was associated with global changes in histone modifications and chromatin localization of Sir2 histone deacetylase. The chromatin-silencing defect of disome X can be partially recapitulated by increasing the copy number of several genes on chromosome X. These results suggest that aneuploidy can directly cause epigenetic instability and disrupt cellular differentiation.
Project description:Aneuploidy and epigenetic alterations have long been associated with carcinogenesis, but it was unknown whether aneuploidy could disrupt the epigenetic states required for cellular differentiation. In this study, we found that ~3% of random aneuploid karyotypes in yeast disrupt the stable inheritance of silenced chromatin during cell proliferation. Karyotype analysis revealed that this phenotype was significantly correlated with gains of chromosomes III and X. Chromosome X disomy alone was sufficient to disrupt chromatin silencing and yeast mating-type identity as indicated by a lack of growth response to pheromone. The silencing defect was not limited to the cryptic mating type loci but was associated with global changes in histone modifications and chromatin localization of Sir2 histone deacetylase. The chromatin-silencing defect of disome X can be partially recapitulated by increasing the copy number of several genes on chromosome X. These results suggest that aneuploidy can directly cause epigenetic instability and disrupt cellular differentiation.
Project description:Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder. Oligomers of Amyloid-β peptides (Aβ) are thought to play a pivotal role in AD pathogenesis, yet the mechanisms involved remain unclear. Two major isoforms of Aβ associated with AD are Aβ40 and Aβ42, the latter being more prone to form oligomers and toxic. Humanized yeast models are currently applied to unravel the cellular mechanisms behind Aβ toxicity. Here, we took a systems biology approach to study two yeast AD models which expressed either Aβ40 or Aβ42 in bioreactor cultures. Strict control of oxygen availability and culture pH, strongly affected the chronological lifespan and reduced confounding effects of variations during cell growth. Reduced growth rates and biomass yields were observed upon expression of Aβ42, indicating a redirection of energy from growth to maintenance. Quantitative physiology analyses furthermore revealed reduced mitochondrial functionality and ATP generation in Aβ42 expressing cells, which matched with observed aberrant fragmented mitochondrial structures. Genome-wide expression levels analysis showed that Aβ42 expression triggers strong ER stress and unfolded protein responses (UPR). Expression of Aβ40 induced only mild ER stress, leading to activation of UPR target genes that cope with misfolded proteins, which resulted in hardly affected physiology. The combination of well-controlled cultures and AD yeast models strengthen our understanding of how cells translate different levels of Aβ toxicity signals into particular cell fate programs, and further enhance their role as a discovery platform to identify potential therapies.
Project description:Aneuploidy is a condition frequently found in tumor cells but how it affects cellular physiology is not known. We have characterized one aspect of aneuploidy, the gain of extra chromosomes. We created a collection of haploid yeast strains that each bear an extra copy of one or more of almost all of the yeast chromosomes. Their characterization revealed that aneuploid strains share a number of phenotypes, including defects in cell cycle progression, increased glucose uptake and increased sensitivity to conditions interfering with protein synthesis and protein folding. These phenotypes were observed only in strains carrying additional yeast genes indicating that they reflect the consequences of additional transcription and translation as well as the resulting imbalances in cellular protein composition. We conclude that aneuploidy causes not only a proliferative disadvantage but also a set of phenotypes that is independent of the identity of the individual extra chromosomes. Keywords: CGH, gene expression
Project description:Aneuploidy and aging are correlated; however, a causal link between these two phenomena has remained elusive. Here we show that yeast disomic for a single native yeast chromosome generally have a decreased replicative lifespan. In addition, the extent of this lifespan deficit correlates with the size of the extra chromosome. We identified a mutation in BUL1 that rescues both the lifespan deficit and a protein trafficking defect in yeast disomic for chromosome 5. Bul1 is an E4 ubiquitin ligase adaptor involved in a protein quality-control pathway that targets membrane proteins for endocytosis and destruction in the lysosomal vacuole thereby maintaining protein homeostasis. Concurrent suppression of the aging and trafficking phenotypes suggests that disrupted membrane protein homeostasis in aneuploid yeast may contribute to their accelerated aging. The data reported here demonstrate that aneuploidy can impair protein homeostasis, shorten lifespan, and may contribute to age-associated phenotypes.
Project description:Growth assay in the presence of a toxic chemical (sr7575) that uses the barcoded collections of yeast gene deletions (haploid, diploid, DamP) to identify deletion strains that are hypersensitive to the drug.
Project description:Aneuploidy is a condition frequently found in tumor cells but how it affects cellular physiology is not known. We have characterized one aspect of aneuploidy, the gain of extra chromosomes. We created a collection of haploid yeast strains that each bear an extra copy of one or more of almost all of the yeast chromosomes. Their characterization revealed that aneuploid strains share a number of phenotypes, including defects in cell cycle progression, increased glucose uptake and increased sensitivity to conditions interfering with protein synthesis and protein folding. These phenotypes were observed only in strains carrying additional yeast genes indicating that they reflect the consequences of additional transcription and translation as well as the resulting imbalances in cellular protein composition. We conclude that aneuploidy causes not only a proliferative disadvantage but also a set of phenotypes that is independent of the identity of the individual extra chromosomes. Keywords: CGH, gene expression This series of microarrays compares yeast strains carrying extra chromosomes to wt yeast with normal chromosome content. Both DNA/CGH and gene expression comparisons were done, as noted. In some experiments, biological replicates were performed as noted. Reference wt nucleic acid was most commonly labeled with Cy3. Experiments labeled as "swap" have the wt reference nucleic acid labeled with Cy5, and ratio values for these experiments are reported as Cy3/Cy5.
Project description:Aneuploidy, the state in which an organism’s genome contains one or more missing or additional chromosomes, often causes widespread genotypic and phenotypic effects. Most often, aneuploidies are deleterious; the most common examples in humans being Down’s syndrome (Trisomy 21) and Turner’s syndrome (monosomy X). However, aneuploidy is surprisingly common in wild yeast populations. In recent years, there has been debate as to whether yeast contain an innate dosage compensation response on the whole-genome level, or if these natural isolates are robust to aneuploidy without such a mechanism. In this study, we tested for differential gene expression in 20 aneuploid and 18 euploid lines of yeast from two previous mutation accumulation experiments, where selection was low and therefore aneuploidies arose spontaneously. We found no evidence for whole-chromosome dosage compensation in aneuploid yeast but did find some evidence for attenuation of expression on a gene-by-gene basis. We additionally found that aneuploidy has no effect on the expression of the rest of the genome (i.e. “trans” genes), and that very few mutually exclusive aneuploid lines shared differentially expressed genes. However, we found a small common differential expression response in the euploid lines, suggesting an effect of mutation accumulation on gene expression. Our findings contribute to our understanding of aneuploidy in yeast and support the hypothesis that there is no innate dosage compensation mechanism at the whole-chromosome level.
Project description:We investigated the effects of the ploidy on cellular response in strains carrying various types of gross chromosomal rearrangements. Fourteen mutated strains (6 haploid strains and 8 diploid strains) were compared to their associated parental strain (haploid or diploid parental strain). For each comparison, 2 microarray experiments implying biological replicates were performed.