Microarray Analysis of Anti-Oxidant Factors in Saccharomyces Cerivisiae
Abstract: Oxidative stress is known to play a role in the development of many types of diseases. This type of stress is caused by cellular damage from reactive oxygen species when a cell produces no reducing agent to eliminate these harmful species. S. cerevisiae, also known as baker's yeast, is a single cell eukaryote that has been used to demonstrate this phenotype. Yeast that contain the ZWF1 deletion are methionine auxotrophs and are sensitive to oxygen and oxidizing agents, signs that are indicative of oxidative stress. Two suppressor genes, ZMS1 and ZMS2, have been implicated as regulators of oxidative stress. Using microarray analysis comparing 838 genes from ΔZMS1 and ΔZMS2 knockout mutants and wild-type yeast strains, we believe that there will be differences in gene expression between mutant strains and the wild-type strains. Genes differentially expressed in ΔZMS2 knockouts and ΔZMS1 knockouts compared with wild-type strains should be up regulated in the absence of the suppressors for ZWF1. Seven genes were found to be be up regulated in two different slides. Of these seven genes, six genes were found to have distinct up regulated functionality in the double knockouts that could be connected to oxidative stress.