Humanized yeast to model human biology, disease and evolution
For decades, budding yeast, a single-cellular eukaryote, has provided remarkable insights into human biology. Yeast and humans share several thousand genes despite morphological and cellular differences and over a billion years of separate evolution. These genes encode critical cellular processes, t...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
The Company of Biologists
2022-06-01
|
| Series: | Disease Models & Mechanisms |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://dmm.biologists.org/content/15/6/dmm049309 |
| _version_ | 1811293627648835584 |
|---|---|
| author | Aashiq H. Kachroo Michelle Vandeloo Brittany M. Greco Mudabir Abdullah |
| author_facet | Aashiq H. Kachroo Michelle Vandeloo Brittany M. Greco Mudabir Abdullah |
| author_sort | Aashiq H. Kachroo |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | For decades, budding yeast, a single-cellular eukaryote, has provided remarkable insights into human biology. Yeast and humans share several thousand genes despite morphological and cellular differences and over a billion years of separate evolution. These genes encode critical cellular processes, the failure of which in humans results in disease. Although recent developments in genome engineering of mammalian cells permit genetic assays in human cell lines, there is still a need to develop biological reagents to study human disease variants in a high-throughput manner. Many protein-coding human genes can successfully substitute for their yeast equivalents and sustain yeast growth, thus opening up doors for developing direct assays of human gene function in a tractable system referred to as ‘humanized yeast’. Humanized yeast permits the discovery of new human biology by measuring human protein activity in a simplified organismal context. This Review summarizes recent developments showing how humanized yeast can directly assay human gene function and explore variant effects at scale. Thus, by extending the ‘awesome power of yeast genetics’ to study human biology, humanizing yeast reinforces the high relevance of evolutionarily distant model organisms to explore human gene evolution, function and disease. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T05:04:17Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-368b7c8e42c143468759469edb66fd38 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1754-8403 1754-8411 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T05:04:17Z |
| publishDate | 2022-06-01 |
| publisher | The Company of Biologists |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Disease Models & Mechanisms |
| spelling | doaj.art-368b7c8e42c143468759469edb66fd382022-12-22T03:01:13ZengThe Company of BiologistsDisease Models & Mechanisms1754-84031754-84112022-06-0115610.1242/dmm.049309049309Humanized yeast to model human biology, disease and evolutionAashiq H. Kachroo0Michelle Vandeloo1Brittany M. Greco2Mudabir Abdullah3 Centre for Applied Synthetic Biology, Department of Biology, 7141 Sherbrooke St. W, Concordia University, Montreal, QC H4B 1R6, Canada Centre for Applied Synthetic Biology, Department of Biology, 7141 Sherbrooke St. W, Concordia University, Montreal, QC H4B 1R6, Canada Centre for Applied Synthetic Biology, Department of Biology, 7141 Sherbrooke St. W, Concordia University, Montreal, QC H4B 1R6, Canada Centre for Applied Synthetic Biology, Department of Biology, 7141 Sherbrooke St. W, Concordia University, Montreal, QC H4B 1R6, Canada For decades, budding yeast, a single-cellular eukaryote, has provided remarkable insights into human biology. Yeast and humans share several thousand genes despite morphological and cellular differences and over a billion years of separate evolution. These genes encode critical cellular processes, the failure of which in humans results in disease. Although recent developments in genome engineering of mammalian cells permit genetic assays in human cell lines, there is still a need to develop biological reagents to study human disease variants in a high-throughput manner. Many protein-coding human genes can successfully substitute for their yeast equivalents and sustain yeast growth, thus opening up doors for developing direct assays of human gene function in a tractable system referred to as ‘humanized yeast’. Humanized yeast permits the discovery of new human biology by measuring human protein activity in a simplified organismal context. This Review summarizes recent developments showing how humanized yeast can directly assay human gene function and explore variant effects at scale. Thus, by extending the ‘awesome power of yeast genetics’ to study human biology, humanizing yeast reinforces the high relevance of evolutionarily distant model organisms to explore human gene evolution, function and disease.http://dmm.biologists.org/content/15/6/dmm049309functional complementationfunctional replaceabilityhumanized yeastorthology |
| spellingShingle | Aashiq H. Kachroo Michelle Vandeloo Brittany M. Greco Mudabir Abdullah Humanized yeast to model human biology, disease and evolution Disease Models & Mechanisms functional complementation functional replaceability humanized yeast orthology |
| title | Humanized yeast to model human biology, disease and evolution |
| title_full | Humanized yeast to model human biology, disease and evolution |
| title_fullStr | Humanized yeast to model human biology, disease and evolution |
| title_full_unstemmed | Humanized yeast to model human biology, disease and evolution |
| title_short | Humanized yeast to model human biology, disease and evolution |
| title_sort | humanized yeast to model human biology disease and evolution |
| topic | functional complementation functional replaceability humanized yeast orthology |
| url | http://dmm.biologists.org/content/15/6/dmm049309 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT aashiqhkachroo humanizedyeasttomodelhumanbiologydiseaseandevolution AT michellevandeloo humanizedyeasttomodelhumanbiologydiseaseandevolution AT brittanymgreco humanizedyeasttomodelhumanbiologydiseaseandevolution AT mudabirabdullah humanizedyeasttomodelhumanbiologydiseaseandevolution |