Role of Dead Cells in Collective Stress Tolerance in Microbial Communities: Evidence from Yeast.

A substantial part of yeast life cycle takes place in the communities where the cells are surrounded by their own clones. Meanwhile, yeast cell fitness depends not only on its own adaptations but also on the processes in the neighboring cells. Moreover, even if a cell loses its clonogenic ability, it is still capable of protecting surrounding cells that are still alive.

Effects of Sterols on the Interaction of SDS, Benzalkonium Chloride, and A Novel Compound, Kor105, with Membranes.

Sterols change the biophysical properties of lipid membranes. Here, we analyzed how sterols affect the activity of widely used antimicrobial membrane-active compounds, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and benzalkonium chloride (BAC). We also tested a novel benzalkonium-like substance, Kor105.

Mitochondrial retrograde signaling inhibits the survival during prolong S/G2 arrest in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Cell senescence is dependent on the arrest in cell cycle. Here we studied the role of mitochondrial retrograde response signaling in yeast cell survival under a prolonged arrest. We have found that, unlike G1, long-term arrest in mitosis or S phase results in a loss of colony-forming abilities.

Amiodarone induces cell wall channel formation in yeast Hansenula polymorpha.

The yeast cell wall is constantly remodeled to enable cell growth and division. In this study, we describe a novel type of cell wall modification. We report that the drug amiodarone induces rapid channel formation within the cell wall of the yeast Hansenula polymorpha.

Chemical potential of the low-dimensional multisubband Fermi gas.

In this paper, the chemical potential of two-dimensional (2D) and quasi-one-dimensional (Q1D) multisubband charged Fermi gases is evaluated. We start with a rather general formula for the thermodynamic potential of an ideal quantum statistical system with arbitrary occupation-number to calculate, as a particular case, the chemical potential of the multisubband 2D Fermi gas described by a quadratic energy spectrum. The chemical potential is also studied in the case of a low-dimensional Fermi gas in the presence of a quantizing magnetic field.

Sir2-dependent daughter-to-mother transport of the damaged proteins in yeast is required to prevent high stress sensitivity of the daughters.

The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae actively transports adverse factors (e.g. oxidized proteins) from the daughter to mother cells.

Ysp2 mediates death of yeast induced by amiodarone or intracellular acidification.

Recently we have found that the drug amiodarone induces apoptosis in yeast, which is mediated by reactive oxygen species (ROS). Here we have used this finding as a tool to screen for genes involved in the death program. We have described a novel mitochondrial protein, Ysp2, acting in the amiodarone-induced death cascade.

Expression of an expanded polyglutamine domain in yeast causes death with apoptotic markers.

Huntington's disease is caused by specific mutations in huntingtin protein. Expansion of a polyglutamine (polyQ) repeat of huntingtin leads to protein aggregation in neurons followed by cell death with apoptotic markers. The connection between the aggregation and the degeneration of neurons is poorly understood.

Mutation of the protein-O-mannosyltransferase enhances secretion of the human urokinase-type plasminogen activator in Hansenula polymorpha.

Human urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) is poorly secreted and aggregates in the endoplasmic reticulum of yeast cells due to inefficient folding. A screen for Hansenula polymorpha mutants with improved uPA secretion revealed a gene encoding a homologue of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae protein-O-mannosyltransferase Pmt1p. Expression of the H.

Defect of vacuolar protein sorting stimulates proteolytic processing of human urokinase-type plasminogen activator in the yeast Hansenula polymorpha.

Human urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) is poorly secreted by yeast cells. Here, we have selected Hansenula polymorpha mutants with increased productivity of active extracellular uPA. Several of the obtained mutants also demonstrated a defect of sorting of carboxypeptidase Y to the vacuole and the mutant loci have been identified in six of them.