Tetrad Dissection Microscope for Yeast Genetics Analyses

由于在实验室中很容易培养和操纵基因，生物学家在过去几十年里广泛使用酵母，对细胞过程做出了重要发现，其中许多发现在人类和其他真核生物中是常见的。在后基因组时代，通过广泛而全面的全基因组遗传分析，酵母在迅速提高我们对生物体如何协调其基因表达和应对压力的知识方面发挥了核心作用。约克大学生物系现在有两个使用酵母作为主要模式生物的实验室。为了充分利用与这种生物合作所提供的潜力，并朝着在该大学开发设备齐全的酵母遗传学设施的方向发展，我们正在申请资金，以获得一台四分体解剖显微镜。这台仪器是实验室处理酵母必不可少的工具，用于产生特定的突变菌株，检查这些菌株的生长表型，并揭示揭示生物途径之间关系的新的遗传相互作用。

Because it is easy to grow in the lab and manipulate genetically, biologists have used yeast extensively in the past several decades to make important discoveries about cellular processes, many of which are common to humans and other eukaryotic organisms. In the post-genomic era, through vast and comprehensive genome-wide genetic analyses, yeast has played a central role in rapidly advancing our knowledge of how organisms coordinate the expression of their genes and respond to stress. The Department of Biology at York University now has two labs that use yeast as their primary model organism. To fully benefit from the potential that working with this organism provides, and towards developing a fully-equipped yeast genetics facility at the university, we are requesting funds to acquire a tetrad dissection microscope. This instrument, which is an indispensable tool for labs working with yeast, is used for generating specific mutant strains, for examining the growth phenotypes of these strains, and for uncovering novel genetic interactions that reveal relationships between biological pathways.