Chemical-genetic profiling of platelet-activating factor in yeast

Abstract

The basic biological processes between the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and mammals are highly conserved. Yeast posses many genes that are implicated in human diseases and have been successfully used as a model for the study of neurodegeneration. Platelet-Activating Factor (C16:0 PAF) causes neuronal cell death independent of its receptor and has been implicated in Alzheimer's disease. I hypothesized that yeast could be used as a model system for deciphering PAF receptor-independent signalling and have utilized genome-wide chemical genomic screening in yeast to further characterize the molecular mechanism of PAF toxicity. Two complementary screens implicate PAF in many cellular processes, some of which parallel results obtained in mammalian studies. I have found that PAF challenge is cytotoxic, delays cell cycle progression, and affects actin stability leading to spindle misorientation and bi-nucleate mother cells.