Abstract
The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is capable of surviving extreme water loss for a long time. However, less is known about the mechanism of its desiccation tolerance. In this study, we revealed that in an exponential culture, all desiccation tolerant yeast cells were in G1 phase and had condensed chromosomes. These cells share certain features of stationary G0 cells, such as low metabolic level. They were also replicatively young, compared to the desiccation sensitive G1 cells. A similar percentage of chromosome-condensed cells were observed in stationary phase but the condensation level was much higher than that of the log-phase cells. These chromosome-condensed stationary cells were also tolerant to desiccation. However, the majority of the desiccation tolerant cells in stationary phase do not have condensed chromosomes. We speculate that the log-phase cells with condensed chromosome might be a unique feature developed through evolution to survive unpredicted sudden changes of the environment.
Highlights
As an anhydrobiote, the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is capable of surviving extreme water loss [1,2,3,4]
We found that in exponentially growing cells, only a small portion of G1 phase and replicatively young cells were tolerant, while cells in all other phases of the cell cycle were sensitive to desiccation stress
Dividing cells are sensitive to desiccation stress Studies have shown that the desiccation tolerance of yeast from a stationary-phase culture is much higher than that from an exponential culture, which ranges from one in a million [17] to about 5-10% [20, 33]
Summary
The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is capable of surviving extreme water loss [1,2,3,4]. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Dividing cells are sensitive to desiccation stress Studies have shown that the desiccation tolerance of yeast from a stationary-phase culture is much higher than that from an exponential culture, which ranges from one in a million [17] to about 5-10% [20, 33]. We speculate that the cell cycle status could be a factor that causes the low desiccation tolerance of the exponentially growing (log-phase) cells.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
