Research Starter Grant: Assessing the Role of the Environmental Stress Response in Protecting Yeast Cells Against Diverse Stressful Conditions

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The Environmental Stress Response (ESR) is a large gene expression program that is initiated when cells are exposed to stress. Although the response has been observed in many gene expression studies, the role of the program is still unknown. It has been hypothesized that the ESR is involved in acquired stress resistance, in which cells that are exposed to a low dose of stress become resistant to an otherwise-lethal dose of a second unrelated stress. This project will test the role of the ESR in acquired stress resistance in yeast. The first phase of the project will use molecular biology techniques to characterize the determinants of acquired stress resistance, including the specificity of acquired resistance, the required doses of initial stress exposure, and the kinetics of the response. The second phase of the project will use DNA microarrays and computational analysis to identify gene expression changes that correlate temporally with the kinetics of acquired stress resistance. Finally, the role that ESR plays in this phenomenon will be tested by assessing the ability of a mutant strain defective in ESR initiation to acquire stress resistance.