S. Cerevisiae

What are some key functional aspects of ARS elements?

1) Ability to recruit a variety of factors involved in triggering DNA replication 2) The intrinsic propensity to easily unwind to facilitate the DNA replication process

What are the two mating types that S. cerevisiae cells in nature switch readily between?

1) Haploid a cells mate with haploid α cells to form diploids. 2) Under nutrient-poor conditions, diploids can be induced to undergo meiosis and sporulation, forming four haploid spores two of each mating type.

What are the three regions in the budding yeast genome that form heterochromatin-like environments?

1) telomeres 2) the rDNA locus 3) the silent mating-type cassettes

What are some key principles adopted from current work on the budding yeast nucleus?

1) the notion that chromosomes adopt nonrandom positions within budding yeast nuclei 2) specific subnuclear locations are associated with specific chromosomal processes 3) the development of a genome-wide map of nucleosome positions at base-pair resolution

What is released by yeast to raise dough?

Carbon dioxide

How do the 16 chromosomes in s. cere play a role in the formation of kinetochores and microtubules?

Each of the 16 S. cerevisiae chromosomes contains a centromere to direct assembly of the kinetochore, itself responsible for making direct contacts with microtubules.

S. Cerevisiae is more commonly known as

baker's yeast or brewer's yeast

Yeast cells divide as rapidly as_________ under optimal lab conditions

once every 90 mins

The density of protein-encoding genes in the budding yeast genome is ______________

quite high

The mating behavior of yeast cells is determined by what?

the MAT locus housed on the right arm of chromosome III

In 1978 S. Cerevisiae was successfully _______________

transformed with a plasmid that had been replicated in the bacterium E. coli

Yeasts are most commonly found in nature in _______________

vineyards

S. Cerevisiae is what type of eukaryote?

Single-celled eukaryote

Proper chromosome segregation during mitosis and meiosis relies on what?

The ability of kinetochore microtubules to make specific contacts with chromosomes

What ultimately has distinguished yeast as a premier model organism?

The ease with which researchers can move genes in and out of yeast cells.

What notable feature of S. Cerevisiae cell division distinguishes it from the fission yeast, S. Pombe?

The process of budding in which smaller daughter cells pinch, or bud, off the mother cell

What can geneticists easily do through the aforementioned characteristic of yeast?

They can easily mutate or manipulate yeast gene expression and study the resulting phenotypic effects

S. Cerevisiae is recognized the world over for the ability to what?

To ferment sugars to ethanol and carbon dioxide, producing a variety of beverages enjoyed by all cultures

The first famed demonstrations of enzymatic activities outside of a living cell began in _________

1900s

The first work on yeast as an experimental organism began in __________

1930s

There are over __________ ORFs in the reference strain s288c and over ________ dubious ORFs in the strain s288c

5000, 740

Several features of the yeast genome, such as it's ability to ensure that chromosomes are properly replicated, allow plasmids to do what?

Gives plasmids the ability to replicate in budding yeast cells following transformation experiments and were thus coined as autonomously replicating sequences (ARSs)

In 1996, S. Cerevisiae was the first what?

It was the first fully sequenced eukaryotic genome