Presenter(s): Mikala Capage—Biology
Faculty Mentor(s): David Garcia
Session 2: Cells R Us
The Garcia Lab studies the effects of prion proteins on key biological processes using the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae . Prions can influence a cell’s phenotype but are based on a heritable protein confirmation and not sequence differences in the nucleic genome . Prions are inherited through the cytoplasm in a pattern of “non-Mendelian” inheritance in which all the cell’s offspring inherit the phenotype caused by the prion . To order to continue to research the broader impacts of prion proteins on biology, it is necessary to identify new examples of them. Our lab recently identified five new candidate prions–of proteins that chemically modify RNA–in yeast that exhibited heritable growth traits after exposure to chemical stressors . To test if the previously observed growth traits inherit in a pattern consistent with a prion, this project uses central methods in
yeast genetics including tetrad dissections, cytoductions, and growth assays . This project has the potential to significantly add to the list of known yeast prions, particularly those involved in RNA biology . A broader understanding of how prions function in yeast will eventually help us transition to understanding the roles they may have in human cells . This is an ongoing project; presented here will be a description of the methods, preliminary and expected results, background information for each putative prion, and other aspects of this experiment .