title: Yeast as a model eukaryote in toxinology: a functional genomics approach to studying the molecular basis of action of pharmacologically active molecules.
abstract: Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has proven to be a relevant and convenient model organism for the study of diverse biological phenomena, due to its straightforward genetics, cost-effectiveness and rapid growth, combined with the typical characteristics of a eukaryotic cell. More than 40% of yeast proteins share at least part of their primary amino acid sequence with the corresponding human protein, making yeast a valuable model in biomedical research. In the last decade, high-throughput and genome-wide experimental approaches developed in yeast have paved the way to functional genomics that aims at a global understanding of the relationship between genotype and phenotype. In this review we first present the yeast strain and plasmid collections for genome-wide experimental approaches to study complex interactions between genes, proteins and endo- or exogenous small molecules. We describe methods for protein-protein, protein-DNA, genetic and chemo-genetic interactions, as well as localization studies, focussing on their application in research on small pharmacologically active molecules. Next we review the use of yeast as a model organism in neurobiology, emphasizing work done towards elucidating the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases and the mechanism of action of neurotoxic phospholipases A(2).
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Biomedical Sciences, Jožef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Mojca
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mattiazzi
authors.forename: Uroš
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Petrovič
authors.forename: Igor
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Križaj
mesh_terms: D005057:Eukaryotic Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005800:Genes, Fungal / Q000235:genetics; D016681:Genome, Fungal; D023281:Genomics; D057166:High-Throughput Screening Assays; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D020543:Proteome; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000166:cytology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D014116:Toxicology / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D005656:Fungal Proteins; D020543:Proteome