Exploring the Impact of Metal Toxicity on Cellular Structures and Vacuole Inheritance in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Austin Irungu
Department of Biology
Faculty Supervisor: Mark Chan
Saccharomyces cerevisiae holds a prominent position as one of the most widely studied organisms in biological research. Vacuoles are cellular organelles essential for maintaining cellular homeostasis and facilitating detoxification process owing to their membrane-bound structure. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, vacuoles have a similar function to that of lysosomes in humans regarding the process of taking in waste and disposing of them. Our research aims to investigate the effect and impact of metals, including lithium, copper, calcium, and iron, on the structure and function of vacuoles. In particular, we have found that exposure to lithium specifically blocks the process of inheritance of vacuoles from mother to daughter pairs. We also considered conducting experiments on yeast cells using magnesium chloride and calcium chloride. We subject yeast cells to different concentrations of lithium, magnesium, calcium and magnesium-lithium mixture, then use microscopy to quantify the overall percentage of mother-daughter pairs that exhibit loss of inheritance. The series of experiments revealed that lithium induced the highest percentage of vacuole inheritance defect compared to the control media. Magnesium also induced a noticeable defect in vacuole inheritance, while calcium did not. Further research is needed to unravel further details regarding the molecular mechanism underlying the inhibition of vacuole inheritance induced by metals especially the magnesium-lithium mixture. These results can provide insights that can potentially expand application of metals for medicinal purposes in humans thus harnessing properties of metals in various treatments.