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

环境应激反应（ESR）是当细胞暴露于应激时启动的一个大型基因表达程序。尽管在许多基因表达研究中已经观察到这种反应，但该程序的作用仍然未知。据推测，ESR与获得性应激抵抗有关，在这种情况下，暴露于低剂量应激的细胞会对第二种不相关应激的致死剂量产生抗性。本项目将测试ESR在酵母获得性抗逆性中的作用。该项目的第一阶段将使用分子生物学技术来表征获得性抗逆性的决定因素，包括获得性抗逆性的特异性、初始应激暴露所需剂量和反应动力学。该项目的第二阶段将使用DNA微阵列和计算分析来识别与获得性抗逆性动力学相关的基因表达变化。最后，ESR在这一现象中所起的作用将通过评估ESR启动缺陷突变株获得抗逆性的能力来检验。

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.