Budding Yeast: An Ideal Backdrop for In vivo Lipid Biochemistry

Abstract

Biological membranes are non-covalent assembly of lipids and proteins. Lipids play critical role in determining membrane physical properties and regulate the function of membrane associated proteins. Budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae offers an exceptional advantage to understand the lipid-protein interactions since lipid metabolism and homeostasis are relatively simple and well characterized as compared to other eukaryotes. In addition, a vast array of genetic and cell biological tools are available to determine and understand the role of a particular lipid in various lipid metabolic disorders. Budding yeast has been instrumental in delineating mechanisms related to lipid metabolism, trafficking and their localization in different subcellular compartments at various cell cycle stages. Further, availability of tools and enormous potential for the development of useful reagents and novel technologies to localize a particular lipid in different subcellular compartments in yeast makes it a formidable system to carry out lipid biology. Taken together, yeast provides an outstanding backdrop to characterize lipid metabolic changes under various physiological conditions.

Regulation of Ergosterol Biosynthesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

“…The yeast S. cerevisiae is used as a reliable model to study multiple aspects of lipid biology due to its well characterized genome, the relative simplicity of its lipid metabolism and homeostasis, and the conservation of genes, routes and networks in other eukaryotes (reviewed in [122]). In recent years, ergosterol biosynthesis has been greatly studied in S. cerevisiae, leading to the identification of many conserved but also fungal-specific steps.…”

The lipid composition of yeast cells modulates the response to iron deficiency

“…Environmental and metabolic stresses trigger alterations in the lipid composition of membranes with the purpose of adapting cellular homeostasis [1]. The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a powerful model organism to study multiple aspects of membrane biology [2]. In yeast, unsaturated fatty acid (UFA)…”

Pdr18 is involved in yeast response to acetic acid stress counteracting the decrease of plasma membrane ergosterol content and order

“…In particular, the role of ABC-MDR/MXR transporters in yeast plasma membrane lipid homeostasis is gaining increasing attention 9 and can also explain the MDR/MXR phenotype exhibited by cells expressing these transporters. Indeed, the maintenance of plasma membrane integrity is crucial in yeast cell tolerance to stress and lipids play a critical role in determining membrane physical properties and regulating the function of membrane associated proteins 10 – 15 . The Saccharomyces cerevisiae ABC transporters demonstrated in the scientific literature as involved in lipid trafficking and membrane lipid homeostasis are shown in Fig.…”