A tetraploid intermediate precedes aneuploid formation in yeasts exposed to fluconazole.

Candida albicans, the most prevalent human fungal pathogen, is generally diploid. However, 50% of isolates that are resistant to fluconazole (FLC), the most widely used antifungal, are aneuploid and some aneuploidies can confer FLC resistance. To ask if FLC exposure causes or only selects for aneuploidy, we analyzed diploid strains during exposure to FLC using flow cytometry and epifluorescence microscopy.

The 'obligate diploid' Candida albicans forms mating-competent haploids.

Candida albicans, the most prevalent human fungal pathogen, is considered to be an obligate diploid that carries recessive lethal mutations throughout the genome. Here we demonstrate that C. albicans has a viable haploid state that can be derived from diploid cells under in vitro and in vivo conditions, and that seems to arise through a concerted chromosome loss mechanism.

Uncovering chromatin's contribution to the mitotic spindle: Applications of computational and polymer models.

The mitotic spindle is a structure that forms during mitosis to help ensure that each daughter cell receives a full complement of genetic material. In metaphase, the spindle contains microtubules that nucleate inward from two opposing poles. Chromosomes are attached to plus-ends of these microtubules via protein structures called kinetochores.

Persistent mechanical linkage between sister chromatids throughout anaphase.

In budding yeast, we have found that sister rDNA arrays marked with fluorescent probes can be visualized as two distinguishable strands during metaphase. Upon anaphase, these arm loci are drawn into the spindle, where they adopt a cruciform-like structure and stretch 2.5-fold as they migrate to the poles.

FluoroSim: A Visual Problem-Solving Environment for Fluorescence Microscopy.

Fluorescence microscopy provides a powerful method for localization of structures in biological specimens. However, aspects of the image formation process such as noise and blur from the microscope's point-spread function combine to produce an unintuitive image transformation on the true structure of the fluorescing molecules in the specimen, hindering qualitative and quantitative analysis of even simple structures in unprocessed images. We introduce FluoroSim, an interactive fluorescence microscope simulator that can be used to train scientists who use fluorescence microscopy to understand the artifacts that arise from the image formation process, to determine the appropriateness of fluorescence microscopy as an imaging modality in an experiment, and to test and refine hypotheses of model specimens by comparing the output of the simulator to experimental data.

Pollen tetrad-based visual assay for meiotic recombination in Arabidopsis.

Recombination, in the form of cross-overs (COs) and gene conversion (GC), is a highly conserved feature of meiosis from fungi to mammals. Recombination helps ensure chromosome segregation and promotes allelic diversity. Lesions in the recombination machinery are often catastrophic for meiosis, resulting in sterility.