Using model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae to evaluate the effects of ELF‐MF and RF‐EMF exposure on global gene expression

Abstract

The potential health hazard of exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) continues to cause public concern. However, the possibility of biological and health effects of exposure to EMF remains controversial and their biophysical mechanisms are unknown. In the present study, we used Saccharomyces cerevisiae to identify genes responding to extremely low frequency magnetic fields (ELF-MF) and to radiofrequency EMF (RF-EMF) exposures. The yeast cells were exposed for 6 h to either 0.4 mT 50 Hz ELF-MF or 1800 MHz RF-EMF at a specific absorption rate of 4.7 W/kg. Gene expression was analyzed by microarray screening and confirmed using real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). We were unable to confirm microarray-detected changes in three of the ELF-MF responsive candidate genes using RT-PCR (P > 0.05). On the other hand, out of the 40 potential RF-EMF responsive genes, only the expressions of structural maintenance of chromosomes 3 (SMC3) and aquaporin 2 (AQY2 (m)) were confirmed, while three other genes, that is, halotolerance protein 9 (HAL9), yet another kinase 1 (YAK1) and one function-unknown gene (open reading frame: YJL171C), showed opposite changes in expression compared to the microarray data (P < 0.05). In conclusion, the results of this study suggest that the yeast cells did not alter gene expression in response to 50 Hz ELF-MF and that the response to RF-EMF is limited to only a very small number of genes. The possible biological consequences of the gene expression changes induced by RF-EMF await further investigation.

Exposure of ELF-EMF and RF-EMF Increase the Rate of Glucose Transport and TCA Cycle in Budding Yeast

“…The changes observed in the DGE analysis were generally larger than those obtained by RT-qPCR. This was also seen in previous analysis of gene expression profiles using DGE and RT-qPCR (Luan et al, 2011) and in analysis using microarray and RT-qPCR (Chen et al, 2012). The inconsistency may be caused by the lower sensitivity of RT-qPCR compared with DGE analysis.…”

“…Global gene expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae had been analyzed previously to evaluate the effects of ELF-EMF and RF-EMF exposure (Chen et al, 2012). They exposed yeast cells for 6 h to either 0.4-mT 50-Hz ELF-MF or 1800-MHz RF-EMF at a SAR of 4.7 W/kg.…”

“…Only a few investigations on the effects of EMF on yeast cells have been undertaken, even though their short cell cycle, easy handling, extensive characterization, and eukaryotic genetic background make yeast a good model organism for this type of study. One study conducted with budding yeast, showed that no changes in the transcription levels of the tested genes under 0.4-mT 50-Hz ELF-MF, whereas the transcription levels of two genes, SMC3 and AQY2 (m) , were found to be upregulated after exposure to 1800-MHz RF-EMF at a specific absorption rate of 4.7 W/kg for 6 h (Chen et al, 2012). To clarify whether EMF exposure can affect the expression of any gene, and potentially identify genes that are sensitive to EMF exposure, more large-scale screening studies are needed.…”

The effects of extremely low frequency magnetic fields on mutation induction in mice

“…While these three studies were performed in vitro, the exposure doses to which these cells were subject to are approximately equivalent to the one used in the present study (300 µT for 15 hours), and thus the preliminary data generated from this pilot study are in conjunction with those previously conducted (Luceri et al, 2005, Henderson et al, 2006Chen et al, 2012).…”

“…Similarly, Chen et al (2012) analysed the gene expression response in Saccharomyces cerevisiae exposed to a 50 Hz magnetic field of 0.4 mT for 6 hours, the use of which was attempting to mimic the 1998 ICNIRP occupational exposure guideline. Despite three genes being discovered to be up-regulated by at least 1.3 fold, upon further analysis with real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), the microarray detected changes were unconfirmed.…”