微生物学技术

This chapter aims to provide the reader with a one-stop reference to the basic procedures needed to grow, store, mate, and sporulate yeast cells. Starting with recipes for the different types of media, the chapter then goes on to explain how cells are grown to the appropriate cell numbers at the correct st ...

The mechanisms of biological chromatin assembly and their regulation have been studied intensively using cellular extracts, particularly those from the embryonic cells of various metazoans. Here we describe how to prepare and use a crude chromatographic fraction from budding yea ...

Synthetic lethality occurs when the combination of two mutations leads to an inviable organism. Screens for synthetic lethal genetic interactions have been used extensively to identify genes whose products buffer one another or impinge on the same essential pathway. For the yeast Sacc ...

The neutral/neutral (N/N) two-dimensional (2-D) agarose gel technique is a useful tool for understanding the mechanisms leading to the complete duplication of linear eukaryotic chromosomes. For the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, it has been used to localize and characterize orig ...

Intracellular localization is important for the characterization of a gene product. Microscopy of fluorescent protein fusions has become the method of choice to define the spatial and temporal behavior of a protein. We show here that recombinant antibody fluorescent protein fusions ...

Fluorescence microscopy is the essential technique for investigation of the intracellular distribution of macromolecules and various organelles also in yeast cells. In this chapter, detailed practical procedures for fluorescence microscopic observations developed or ...

The technique for the transformation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae using the LiAc/SS Carrier DNA/PEG method is described. We describe a rapid method, for use when large numbers of transformants are not necessary. A high-efficiency method for the generation of large numbers of transforma ...

Conditional mutants are important tools particularly in the analysis of essential genes. In this chapter, a method is described that allows for a rapid design-based generation of temperature-sensitive alleles of many Saccharomyces cerevisiae genes. The method employs a temperat ...

One essential step for the molecular dissection of gene function is gene inactivation. In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, elaborate tools for gene disruption are available. Gene disruption cassettes carrying completely heterologous marker genes flanked by short DNA segme ...

The synthetic lethal screen is a method of isolating novel mutants whose survival is dependent on a gene of interest. Combining the colony-color assay with a synthetic lethal screen offers a means to visually detect a mutant that depends on a plasmid for survival. Screening for synthetic lethals ...

Proper folding, and consequently exit from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and secretion of heterologous exocytic proteins in yeast can be rescued by fusing the proteins to certain yeast-derived polypeptides. Biologically active mammalian glycoproteins can be produced in Sacch ...

Biochemistry is an important experimental tool in the study of protein functions. Biochemical studies frequently involve overexpression of a cloned gene and purification of the recombinant protein. The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae provides an effective system for express ...

The concept of telomeres as being the end-part of eukaryotic chromosomes was first described by H. J. Muller and B. McClintock (1,2). Their pioneering work opened the path for multiple new researches and assays on a thrilling subject, with implications for various domains such as aging, replicat ...

Study of gene expression can be facilitated by using a reporter gene assay. Instead of directly measuring the level of target gene mRNA, one can clone the promoter region of the gene of interest in front of a reporter gene and measure the reporter gene expression as a reflection of the expression of the gene of ...

Chromatin structure and nucleosome positioning play a crucial role in gene expression regulation. Nucleosome positioning is often inferred by the protection of underlying DNA to nucleases. Because nucleases are excluded by plasma membranes, chromatin mapping requires isola ...

Classic strain development that combines random mutagenesis and selection has a long history of success in generation of biocatalysts with industrially designed traits. However, the genetic loci contributing to the phenotypic strain changes are difficult to identify prior to gen ...

In recent years there has been a growing interest in the precise and concerted assembly of multiple DNA fragments of diverse sizes, including chromosomes, and the fine tuning of gene expression levels and protein activity. Commercial DNA assembly solutions have not been conceived to suppo ...

Discovery of promoter elements with previously unknown regulated responses is important for metabolic engineering. For example, promoters responsive to the end product can be useful to regulate expression with increasing levels of product. In addition, such promoters can be used as s ...

A method for in vivo evolution of metabolic pathways in bacteria is described. This method is a powerful tool for synthetic biology type of metabolic design and can lead to the creation of new metabolic pathways or the improvement of existing metabolic enzymes. The proposed strategy also permits ...

MIRAGE is a unique in vivo genome editing technique that exploits the inherent instability of inverted repeats (palindromes) in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome. As a technique able to quickly create deletions as well as precise point mutations, it is valuable in applications t ...