UW-Stout/Glucose SP23

Glucose Toxicity on BY4735 Strain: Pilot Experiment

Introduction

This study was provoked by a similar study into glucose sensitivity across different strains (Du & Lang, 2006). Once BY4735 strains’ reach a certain cell/ml count in glucose solution, they have been shown to initiate glucose-induced apoptosis for the survival of the colony as illustrated in the aforementioned study. To ensure replication of this study was feasible, a pilot experiment following said protocol was replicated. All solution transformations were conducted in a sterile environment for purity concerns. The controls were as follows: sterile water, 2% sorbitol (osmotic control), and 2% glucose. The hypothesis being tested was as follows; BY4735 will exhibit glucose-induced apoptosis after a 24-hour incubation period.

Materials/Equipment

• YPED rich medium plates (2% glucose, 2% peptone, 1% yeast extract)
• Autoclave
• BY4735 wild type strain
• Nanodrop(Spectrophotometer)
• 50 ml solutions of 2% glucose (m/v) and 2% sorbitol (m/v)
• 37C shaking incubator
• 30C incubator
• Centrifuge
• Biosafe hood
• 100ml flasks

Methods

1. Bring BY4735 strain to stationary phase. Then, pellet in centrifuge and discard of excess liquid. Completing this washing phase 3 times.
2. After third washing phase, resuspend in a small volume of water. Complete a 1/10 dilution cell culture nanodrop to determine a relative OD600.
3. Cells are then transferred into 10ml of either 2% glucose, 2% sorbitol, or sterile water at 2x10^{7 cells/ml final concentration.}
4. Incubate in 37C shaking incubator at 150 rpm for 24 hours, plate and incubate in 30C, then complete viability assay visually.

Results

The plates after incubation for 24 hours are pictured below (Figure 1).

Discussion

Plates provided inconclusive assay results and indicated that there was no difference between controls and therefore the hypothesis was rejected. Most likely, this was due to experimental error. One possible adjustment to make would be to stain and conduct a viability assay instead of plating. This will produce a more concise measurement of living versus dead cells to conduct a more accurate analysis of glucose-induced apoptosis within the population. This adjustment will be made when replicating the experiment on knockout strains. Ultimately, this experiment did not provide any scientific data. However, it helped prepare for the upcoming experiment.

References

Du, H., & Liang, Y. (2006). Saccharomyces cerevisiae ste20 mutant showing resistance to glucose-induced cell death. Yi chuan xue bao = Acta :genetica Sinica, 33(7), 664–668. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0379-4172(06)60097-8