title: A yeast assay for high throughput screening of natural anti-viral agents.
abstract: Over the last decade the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has become a popular organism for studying heterologous gene expression and in vivo protein-protein interactions. Many variations of these basic systems have originated over the years. Besides these vast and varied applications of the yeast expression system, S. cerevisiae has also been used extensively in fundamental research as a model simple eukaryote. We have used the S. cerevisiae system to design a high throughput screen for anti-viral agents from natural sources. The design of the assay rests on the ability of the L-A helper virus and the M(1) satellite virus to detect small variations in -1 ribosomal frameshifting. A minor change in frameshifting efficiencies can be detected and clearly shown phenotypically in terms of zones of clearing on an agar plate. Using such a process, we have initiated a high throughput screening process for natural anti-viral agents.
authors.affiliation: Virology Group, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Aruna Asaf Ali Road, P.O. Box 10504, New Delhi 110067, India.
authors.forename: Rashi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Srivastava
authors.forename: Sunil K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Lal
mesh_terms: D000841:Anisomycin / Q000494:pharmacology; D000998:Antiviral Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D003513:Cycloheximide / Q000494:pharmacology; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical / Q000379:methods*; D018965:Frameshifting, Ribosomal; D006378:Helper Viruses / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D019384:Nucleic Acid Synthesis Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology; D011500:Protein Synthesis Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology; D012313:RNA / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D012328:RNA Viruses / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000502:physiology*; D012526:Satellite Viruses / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D013033:Sparsomycin / Q000494:pharmacology; D014779:Virus Replication / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D000998:Antiviral Agents; D019384:Nucleic Acid Synthesis Inhibitors; D011500:Protein Synthesis Inhibitors; D012313:RNA; D000841:Anisomycin; D013033:Sparsomycin; D003513:Cycloheximide