8. SPATIO TEMPORAL DYNAMICS OF YEAST POLARIZATION IN PHEROMONE GRADIENT

Department: Bioengineering
Faculty Advisor(s): Jeff Hasty

Primary Student
Name: Sujata Nayak
Email: snayak@ucsd.edu
Phone: 858-822-3859
Grad Year: 2010

Abstract
Haploid Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells upon exposure to alpha factor results in the arrest of the cell cycle, expression of mating specific genes, and polarized growth toward the mating partner. Proteins involved in signaling, polarization, cell adhesion, and fusion are localized to the tip of the mating cell (shmoo) where fusion will eventually occur. How does the cell targets and retains the proteins involved in the shmoo tip is still not clear. Biological system like the one mentioned above in their natural environments are exposed to countless stimuli, for example changes in nutrients, growth factors, etc. Yet, complex external stimulus are either minimized or eliminated altogether in laboratory conditions. That raises a question: if the biological systems in the laboratory settings are true depiction of their natural behavior. Current high throughput technologies such as flow cytometry and gene microarrays have found broad spectrum of application in biological systems; however these technologies are not well suited when the investigation of the dynamics of the biological system is desired. Microfluidic based Fluorescence microscopy enables us to follow single cells through time without sacrificing temporal resolution. Micro fabricated micro fluidic devices enable us to tightly control the microenvironment of cell, by manipulating the flow of fluid through microscopic channels and chambers. However, to monitor the behavior of the yeast cells, in a dynamically changing environment of pheromone concentration there is a need to develop experimental techniques that enable the acquisition of temporal cell dynamics data. To address this need, a micro fluidic device where the direction of the gradient can be changed in a temporal manner was constructed.

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