Exploring the Impact of Metal Toxicity on Cellular Structures and Vacuole Inheritance in Saccharomyces Cerevisiae
Arthur Ramos Reyes
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 membrane-bound organelles that help maintain cell balance and aid in detoxification. 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 performing experiments on yeast strains such as BY4741, YCK3, and VPS41, along with their respective mutants, using magnesium chloride. This experiment was conducted to evaluate the validity of the proposed vacuole inheritance pathway using varieties of yeast cells and their mutants. We subjected yeast cells to different concentrations of lithium, magnesium and magnesium-lithium mixture, then used 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 defects. Magnesium also induced a noticeable defect in vacuole inheritance. Further research is needed to unravel further details regarding the molecular mechanism underlying the inhibition of vacuole inheritance induced by metals and its impact on the proposed vacuole inheritance pathway, particularly in response to magnesium and the magnesium–lithium mixture in different yeast variants. These results offer insights that could expand the medicinal use of metals in human treatments harnessing properties of metals.