Humanized Yeast: Scientists Create Yeast With Important Human Genes



The DNA of baker's yeast has been successfully altered by biotechnologist Pascale Daran-Lapujade and her colleagues at Delft University of Technology. For the first time, a vital human trait has been successfully transplanted into a yeast cell. The journal Cell Reports just published their study.

Humans cannot survive without a group of ten genes that Daran-lab Lapujade's added to yeast cells. These genes hold the instructions for a metabolic pathway, which breaks down sugar to generate energy and create cellular building blocks within muscle cells. The modified yeast could be useful in medical research because this process is implicated in a variety of diseases, including cancer.

Medical researchers may employ this humanized yeast model as a tool for drug screening and cancer research now that they are aware of the entire process, according to Daran-Lapujade.

Daran-Lapujade asserts that although humans are made up of a far more sophisticated system than yeast does and that the latter lives as a single cell, the two organisms share a lot of similarities in how their cells function.

Therefore, scientists frequently introduce human genes into yeast. Researchers may study one mechanism in a pure environment because yeast eliminates all other interactions that might occur in the human body.

For its ease of growth and genetic accessibility—its DNA can be easily manipulated to answer basic questions—yeast is a magnificent creature when compared to human cells or tissues, according to Daran-Lapujade. Thanks to yeast, several important findings, like the cell division cycle, were clarified.

Previously, Daran-group Lapujade was successful in creating synthetic chromosomes that serve as a DNA platform for adding new activities to yeast. They aimed to determine if the cells could still function as a whole after integrating multiple human genes and whole metabolic pathways.

What would happen if yeast were given the same set of genes that regulate human muscles' use of sugar and their ability to produce energy? Daran-Lapujade questioned. Can such a crucial and intricate job in yeast be humanized?


In addition to transferring human genes into yeast, Daran-Lapujade notes that they also entirely replaced the matching yeast genes with the human muscle genes. Given how particular and well controlled the process is in both human and yeast cells, you may suppose you can't swap the yeast version for the human one. But it is quite effective!

With the use of lab-grown human tissue cells, the researchers collaborated with Professor Barbara Bakker's group at the University Medical Centre Groningen to examine the expression of human genes in yeast and in their natural human muscle milieu. The novel humanized yeast is valuable as models for human cells because of the striking similarities between the characteristics of human enzymes generated in yeast and in their original human cells.

This particular mechanism is but a minor portion of human metabolism; humanized yeasts might be used to study several more processes that occur in human and yeast cells that are analogous to this one. Even though Daran-Lapujade concentrates on the theoretical and technical elements of engineering yeast and does not intend to investigate the usage of the humanized yeast herself, she intends to work with other researchers who are considering using the tool.

By DELFT UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Do You Sleep on Your Back or Side? Here's The Research on 'Optimal' Sleep Positions

Image
William Dement, a renowned sleep researcher at Stanford University, is quoted as saying that after 50 years of study, the only reason he can think of for why we sleep is "because we become sleepy." Sleep certainly matters for our health and wellbeing even though it may be, as one researcher put it, "the sole major habit in quest of a function." Do we, however, have it right? What do studies on sleeping positions say? Is there a proper sleeping position? The majority of people favor sleeping on their side. This is encouraging news because people who sleep on their backs are more likely to have trouble falling asleep or breathing during the night. Most of the time, we have a tendency to shift around quite a bit at night. According to a study involving 664 sleepers, on average, participants slept on their side 54% of the time, their back 37% of the time, and their front 7% of the time. Males are more likely to change positions throughout the night and move their arms, ...
Read more

The Science of Beards

Image
Here are a few facts that scientists have learned about beards as the world prepares to celebrate amazing facial hair on World Beard Day (September 3). Strong Manly Beard Men who have beards appear to be more dominant, aggressive, and strong, according to numerous studies[1][2][3] that have been conducted. In fact, men claim that growing facial hair makes them feel[4] more manly. Men who choose to grow beards tend to have higher testosterone levels than men who choose to keep their faces clean-shaven, according to research. They are also more likely to be hostile sexists, or to support the patriarchy and male dominance, as well as to believe that women belong in the kitchen, according to research on this topic. The beards (and muscles) on these males might be used to enforce gender roles. Professor R. D. Guthrie proposed in his book "Evolution of human threat display organs" from the 1970s that beards could be utilized to scare male rivals by improving aggressive and threaten...
Read more

Scientists Uncover a Surprising Connection Between Appetite and Sun Exposure

Image
Recent studies from Tel Aviv University show that women are not affected by sun exposure on their hunger levels, but males are. The study shows how the metabolic pathway is engaged differently in men and women. It was carried out utilizing lab models. Males of both animal and human species, as well as those exposed to the sun, are reportedly triggered to produce a protein called p53 that repairs any DNA damage that may have been done to the skin as a result of the exposure. The body produces the hunger-inducing hormone ghrelin in response to p53 activation. In females, the hormone estrogen stops p53 from interacting with ghrelin, preventing the desire to eat after being in the sun. The ground-breaking investigation was directed by professor Carmit Levy and Ph.D. candidate Shivang Parikh of the Department of Human Genetics and Biochemistry at TAU's Sackler Faculty of Medicine. In addition to the Tel Aviv Sourasky (Ichilov), Assuta, Meir, and Sheba Medical Centers, Drs. Yiftach Gepne...
Read more