title: A recombinant yeast strain as a short term bioassay to assess estrogen-like activity of xenobiotics.
abstract: The study investigated the responsiveness of a recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast strain to screen estrogen-like chemicals in order to use it as a first level short-term bioassay for environmental preventive medicine purposes. We used the yeast strain RMY326 ER-ERE, containing the human estrogen receptor alpha and a reporter gene lacZ encoding the enzyme b-galactosidase. We tested the natural steroid hormone 17beta-estradiol, diethylstilbestrol, colchicine, some phytoestrogens and pesticides, and organochlorine insecticides. The relative inductive efficiency (RIE) and EC50 values confirmed the sensitivity and specificity of the yeast strain. A statistically significant reproducibility of results in repeated experiments was assessed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Pathology, Medical biotechnology, Infectivology, Epidemiology, University of Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pinto
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Picard
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Reali
mesh_terms: D001681:Biological Assay / Q000379:methods*; D004271:DNA, Fungal; D004274:DNA, Recombinant; D047628:Estrogen Receptor alpha / Q000235:genetics*; D004967:Estrogens / Q000502:physiology; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000235:genetics*; D013997:Time Factors; D015262:Xenobiotics / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D004271:DNA, Fungal; D004274:DNA, Recombinant; D047628:Estrogen Receptor alpha; D004967:Estrogens; D015262:Xenobiotics