Abstract
Over the last few decades, the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been extensively used as a valuable organism to explore mechanisms of aging and human age-associated neurodegenerative disorders. Yeast models can be used to study loss of function of disease-related conserved genes and to investigate gain of function activities, frequently proteotoxicity, exerted by non-conserved human mutant proteins responsible for neurodegeneration. Most published models of proteotoxicity have used rapidly dividing cells and suffer from a high level of protein expression resulting in acute growth arrest or cell death. This contrasts with the slow development of neurodegenerative proteotoxicity during aging and the characteristic post-mitotic state of the affected cell type, the neuron. Here, we will review the efforts to create and characterize yeast models of neurodegeneration using the chronological life span model of aging, and the specific information they can provide regarding the chronology of physiological events leading to neurotoxic proteotoxicity-induced cell death and the identification of new pathways involved.
Neurodegenerative Diseases Modeled in Yeast
The unicellular yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, known as baker’s yeast or brewer’s yeast, has been extensively used in the areas of biotechnology and biomedicine. Over the last century, S. cerevisiae has been used as a valuable organism for studying the principles of microbiology, characterizing biochemical pathways and understanding the biology of more complex eukaryotic organisms (). A multiplicity of basic cellular activities are conserved from yeast to humans, including DNA replication, recombination and repair, RNA transcription and translation, intracellular trafficking, enzymatic activities of general metabolism and mitochondrial biogenesis, protein quality control pathways, nutrient sensing, and stress resistance pathways (reviewed in ). Therefore, knowledge gained in yeast has been fundamental to understanding the physiology of human cells and the pathophysiology of human diseases.
Over the last two decades, yeast has been used to model the human aging process and complex neurodegenerative disorders, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson’s disease (PD), and Huntington’s disease (HD) (reviewed in ). In humans, these neurodegenerative disorders are characterized by the progressive, selective loss of neurons in different areas of the brain associated with the misfolding of disease-specific proteins. Although yeast cells are less complex than human neurons, basic metabolic pathways involved in neurodegeneration are well-conserved in S. cerevisiae, as mentioned earlier.
Constructing a yeast model of a human neurodegenerative disorder does not present major technical difficulties per se but requires a carefully designed multistep plan (Figure 1). A major goal is that the yeast model of a particular disease must recapitulate the crucial events preceding cell death that are manifested during the course of the human disorder.
FIGURE 1
The strategies that are usually followed in the construction of yeast models of human neurodegenerative diseases depend on genetic and pathophysiological constraints. In some cases, human disorders result from a loss of function of the disease gene encoded protein. In these cases, when the human disease gene is conserved from yeast to humans, functional complementation studies will allow determining whether the human disease gene product partially or fully replaces the function of the yeast gene product. If complementation occurs, human disease gene mutant alleles are expressed in yeast and tested for functionality as for mutations in the Cu–Zn superoxide dismutase gene responsible for ALS (
In age-associated neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), PD, or HD, the human disease genes are restricted to vertebrates. In these diseases, however, a gain of function of the disease mutant proteins greatly contributed to pathogenicity. Mutant forms of the proteins huntingtin (htt) and α-synuclein, responsible for HD and some familiar forms of PD, respectively, undergo misfolding and damage several cellular structures thus leading to cell death. Yeast models of these disorders are constructed by expressing the human disease gene in yeast thus providing paradigms where the toxic effect of the misfolded protein on the cellular physiology and metabolism can be conveniently studied (
The Yeast Chronological Life Span Assay: a Better System to Model Neurodegeneration?
Yeast Aging
The ideal yeast models of age-associated neurodegeneration should incorporate the concept of cellular aging. Yeast has two life spans; a replicative life span (RLS), defined as the number of daughters produced by each dividing mother cell, and a chronological life span (CLS), defined as the capacity of stationary (Go) cultures to maintain viability over time. The CLS assay, initially established by Valter Longo (University of Southern California) (
Therefore, the yeast CLS model of aging is expected to be an informative paradigm regarding connections between aging and neurodegeneration, at least for those diseases originating from proteotoxic stress.
The CLS Assay
Chronological life span determination must be conducted in exact conditions to ensure reproducibility. CLS is classically determined in cells grown in liquid synthetic complete media containing 2% glucose (SDC) supplemented with standard amounts of amino acids and nucleotide bases as previously described (Sherman, 1991;
FIGURE 2

The chronological life span (CLS) assay. In a typical CLS assay, yeast strains from frozen stocks (–80°C) are patched onto YPD agar plates (2% glucose) and incubated at 30°C. The following day, cells are inoculated into 10 ml of SDC media and grown overnight. After 24 h, cells are inoculated into 50 ml of synthetic (SDC) media in 250-ml flasks to an optical density at 600 nm (OD600) of 0.250. Cultures are then grown with shaking (250 rpm) at 30°C. We recommend that all flasks are capped using Bio-Silico plugs that ensure sterility and maximize airflow (Hirschmann, Louisville, KY, United States). Maximum cell density is normally reached after 48 h of growth in SDC, therefore we consider 3 days after inoculation as Day 0 of CLS. Subsequently, cellular viability is determined every other day by either a clonogenic approach using the colony formation unit (CFU) assay of propidium iodide staining and flow cytometry analyses (PI-FCM) as described (
FIGURE 3

Scheme of some of the experiments used to monitor mitochondrial damage during CLS. During CLS of wild-type yeast cultures expressing or not the toxic proteins are collected at different time points and analyzed for markers of mitochondrial function including: (1) The index of respiratory competence (Parrella and Longo, 2008) or proportion of cells that are able to form colonies in media containing respiratory (glycerol) versus fermentable (glucose) carbon sources. (2) Endogenous cell respiration measured polarographically and mitochondrial respiratory chain (MRC) enzymatic activities measured spectrophotometrically (
Strain Background
When preparing yeast models of aging and neurodegeneration it is important to consider the strain background. Several laboratory strains commonly used in aging research are genetically and physiologically heterogeneous (
External Modulators of Yeast CLS
Various external conditions have been found to shorten or extend yeast CLS in wild-type cells. Those need to be taken into account when designing the CLS assays with yeast models of neurodegenerative diseases and when interpreting the results obtained. For example, the CLS on the type of medium in which cells are initially grown. Yeast grown in synthetic medium containing dextrose survive for a few days (from 6 to 11 depending on the yeast strain), which is a very short, high-metabolic post-diauxic phase (Sinclair et al., 1998;
CLS Studies Using Yeast Models of Neurodegenerative Disease
Although, the CLS assay has been used extensively to study and identify modifiers of normal yeast aging, proportionately few studies have employed the CLS assay to study yeast models of neurodegenerative disease. This represents a vast missed opportunity. A summary of studies conducted to date using the CLS assay to evaluate the toxicity of disease-related proteins in a wild-type yeast background as well as studies that attempted to find toxicity suppressors in these models using the CLS assay are listed in Table 1. In this section, we will briefly introduce the main findings of these studies, the study limitations, and our advice for future work. As seen in Table 1, the majority of these studies also quantified yeast viability throughout the CLS assay using only the colony formation unit (CFU) assay method, which, as explained previously may affect the strength of the interpretations that can be made from these studies if not combined with the parallel use of the PI–FCM method.
Table 1
| Disorder | Protein involved | Inducible expression system | Toxic? | Select assays reported | Strain and growth phases studied | CLS evaluation method | Interventions tested for CLS | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Huntington’s disease | Huntingtin | β-Estradiol inducible 103Q-htt expression TEF1-7 promoter | Yes | 103Q expression by fluorescence microscopy Cell respiration Serial dilution growth test Oxidative phosphorylation inhibitors | W303 Exponential Stationary | CFU Live/dead staining | Glucose restriction HAP4 overexpression Growth in respiratory media | Ruetenik et al., 2016 |
| Alzheimer’s disease | Amyloid-β | Constitutive expression of Amyloid-β with ER targeting signal under multiple promoter types | Yes | CLS (constant pH, oxygen) Serial dilution growth test ROS levels Amyloid oligomerization by immunoblot and immunostaining Proteome activity assay Mitochondrial function Transcriptional and lipid composition response to amyloid-β expression Oxygen limitation Glycogen/trehalose levels | CEN.PK113-7D Exponential Diauxic shift Stationary | CFU Serial dilution Live/dead staining | Glucose restriction | |
| Mutant ubiquitin (UBB+1) | Constitutive expression of UBB+1 under TEF1 promoter in single or multi-copy vectors | No | Proteolytic activity assay Induced protein misfolding challenge ROS levels by DHR123 staining TUNEL assay Caspase activation Heat shock/oxidative stress resistance Transcript levels by rtPCR Knockout of Atg1 | CEN.PK 113-11C Exponential Stationary | CFU Serial dilution Live/dead staining | N/A | ||
| Parkinson’s disease | α-Synuclein | Galactose inducible expression of wild-type and A53T mutant α-synuclein at different intensities | Yes | ROS levels by DHE staining Annexin V/PI/TUNEL staining | BY4741 Stationary | CFU Live/dead staining | aif1, yca1, nma111 deletion Depletion of mtDNA | |
| Constitutive expression of α-synuclein under TPI promoter | Yes | Autophagy activity assay Autophagic activity by western blotting | BY4741 Stationary | CFU | Glucose restriction tor1 deletion | |||
| Doxycycline induction at different times during CLS, Galactose induction at stationary phase Constitutive expression of wild-type and mutant α-synuclein | Yes | ROS levels by DHE staining Autophagy/mitophagy induction by mRNA levels, activity assay, and confocal microscopy Sod1/2 activity Mitochondrial function | BY4741 and W303 Exponential Diauxic shift Stationary | CFU Live/dead staining | atg11 and atg32 deletion Chloroquine supplementation | Sampaio-Marques et al., 2012 | ||
| Chromosomally integrated α-synuclein under FAA2 promoter | Yes | ROS levels by DCFH staining Oxidative stress resistance | BY4741 Stationary | CFU | Triclabendazole or Albendazole supplementation | |||
| Synphilin-1 | Constitutively expressed wild-type and mutant synphilin-1 under TPI1 promoter | Yes | Protein processing by immunoblotting Aggregate formation by fluorescent microscopy Serial dilution growth test ROS levels by DHE staining Annexin V/PI staining | BY4741 Exponential Stationary | CFU | sir2 deletion | ||
| DJ-1 | Single deletion of multiple yeast DJ-1 family members | Yes | Autophagic activity by GFP-Atg8 reporter and fluorescent microscopy Heat shock resistance Carbon starvation Rapamycin treatment Gene expression changes upon DJ-1 knockout | BY4742 and BY4743 Exponential Stationary | CFU | N/A | ||
| Parkin | Constitutive expression of Parkin under GPD promoter | No | Oxidative stress resistance Parkin localization by immunoblotting Pink1 overexpression Autophagy disruption Parkin localization and aggregation by fluorescent microscopy | W303 Stationary | CFU | Growth in respiratory media | Pereira et al., 2015 | |
| Congenital neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis, Alzheimer’s disease risk, others | Pep4 | pep4 deletion strain | Yes | Serial dilution growth test Stress resistance tests ROS levels by H2DCFDA staining Mitochondrial morphology | BY4741 Exponential Stationary | CFU Live/dead staining | Quercetin supplementation | |
| Familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) | SOD1 | Wild-type and AV4 mutant human SOD1 under yeast SOD1 promoter | No | SOD1 activity assay Intracellular oxidation analysis Protein carbonylation assay | BY4741 Exponential Stationary | CFU | gsh1 deletion | |
| SOD1 and SOD2 deletion strains | Yes | Oxygen consumption, amino acid requirements | DBY746 and W303 Exponential Diauxic shift Stationary | CFU | Low aeration coq3 deletion | |||
| SOD1 deletion strains | Yes | Mitochondrial fractionation for protein localization SOD enzymatic activity | DBY746 and W303 Exponential Stationary | Serial dilution | CCS1 overexpression | Sturtz et al., 2001 | ||
| Fronto-temporal lobar degeneratio/n (FTLD-U), ALS | TDP-43 | Galactose inducible expression of wild-type or mutant TDP-43 | Yes | ROS levels by DHE staining Aggregation formation by fluorescent microscopy Annexin V/PI staining Respiratory capacity | BY4741 Exponential Stationary | CFU | Depletion of mtDNA Deletion/inhibition of respiratory complexes | |
| Ataxia with oculomotor apraxia type 2 (AOA2) Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis 4 (ALS4) | Sen1 | Multiple genetically modified mutant sen1 strains | Yes | Serial dilution growth test Mitochondrial function by fluorescent microscopy and flow cytometry ROS levels by DHE and H2DCFDA staining Stress resistance Transcriptome analysis of Sen1 mutants Annexin V/PI staining | BY4741 Exponential Stationary | CFU | N/A | Sariki et al., 2016 |
| Friedreich ataxia | Frataxin (Yfh1p) | Wild-type or mutant YFH1 expressed into yfh1 deletion strain under endogenous YFH1 promoter | Yes | Serial dilution growth test Oxiblot Iron challenge ROS damage Growth in low oxygen | BY4741 Exponential Stationary | CFU | N/A | |
| Niemann–Pick type C | NPC1 | ncr1 deleted yeast cells | Yes | Sphingolipid analysis B-Galactosidase activity Oxidative stress resistance Mitochondrial function Mitochondrial network by fluorescent microscopy Serial dilution growth test | BY4741 Exponential Post-diauxic shift Stationary | CFU | Deletion of SIT4, CDC55, PKH1, or SCH9 Treatment with myriocin | Vilaca et al., 2014, 2018 |
Yeast models of neurodegenerative disorders established in the context of the chronological life span model of aging.
CFU, colony formation unit; CLS, chronological life span.
Huntington’s Disease (HD) and Other Polyglutamine (PolyQ) Disorders
Polyglutamine (PolyQ) diseases are caused by a CAG codon repeat expansion in disease-specific genes resulting in the expression of misfolding/aggregation-prone proteins with expanded polyQ stretches. These include HD, characterized by intranuclear and cytoplasmic htt inclusions, and six types of spinocerebellar ataxias (Shao and Diamond, 2007). Mitochondrial dysfunction, altered mitochondrial integrity and dynamics and impaired axonal trafficking have been associated with the pathogenesis of polyQ diseases in human patients and several research model organisms (Panov et al., 2002; Trushina et al., 2004;
Yeast Models in Dividing Cells
In yeast, expression of htt exon I fragments comprising the polyQ stretches faithfully recapitulates htt misfolding/aggregation in a polyQ length-dependent manner, as shown by the pioneering work of Dr. Susan Lindquist (
Yeast Models in Non-dividing Cells
To ascertain how polyQ toxicity modulates aging, we have studied suppressors of mutant htt toxicity using the CLS assay in a yeast model of HD by expressing 103Q starting at day 0 of the stationary phase using an inducible β-estradiol expression system (Figure 4) (Ruetenik et al., 2016). In the CLS assay, in standard synthetic media growth conditions, we observed that overexpression of this 103Q htt fragment through induction with 50 nM β-estradiol resulted in a severe shortening of CLS compared to control cells (Ruetenik et al., 2016) (Figure 4).
FIGURE 4

β-Estradiol inducible yeast models of polyglutamine disorders. (A) Chronology of polyQ-GFP protein accumulation, followed by fluorescence microscopy, in cells induced with 50 nM β-estradiol. The bar is 5 μm. (B,C) Yeast CLS. Survival of wild-type cells expressing 25Q or 103Q from a β-estradiol-inducible promoter activated with the indicated amounts of inducer or supplemented with the solvent (ethanol) was estimated by propidium iodide (PI) staining and flow cytometry analysis of 10,000 cells. Data are average of three samples in % of cells alive at day 0. In (C) a β-estradiol titration was performed. (D) Effect of increased mitochondrial biogenesis by HAP4 overexpression on CLS of yeast expressing 103Q from day 0 in the stationary phase. Error bars represent SEM for three independent experiments. (E) Effect of growth in synthetic medium containing ethanol and glycerol as non-fermentable (respiratory) carbon sources (WOEG) on 103Q yeast CLS compared to synthetic medium containing glucose as fermentable carbon source (WOGLU). SD <1 for all samples, n = 3. (F) Effect of calorie restriction (CR) modeled by growing the cells in the presence of 0.5% glucose vs. non-CR (2% glucose) in 103Q yeast CLS. SD <1 for all samples, n = 3. This figure was constructed using panels previously published in Ruetenik et al. (2016) with permission since they were published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.
In previous studies with this yeast model, using exponentially-growing cells, we had discovered that the 103Q mutant htt fragment associates with the mitochondrial membrane and disrupts several key mitochondrial functions (Solans et al., 2004;
Alzheimer’s Disease (AD)
Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and Other α-Synucleopathies
α-Synuclein (α-syn) is a presynaptic brain protein. Mainly cytosolic, α-synuclein can bind membranes and participate in vesicle trafficking. Misfolded/aggregated α-synuclein is the major constituent of cytoplasmic inclusions called Lewy bodies, a pathological hallmark of α-synucleinopathies (Uversky, 2008). This group of diseases includes PD, multiple system atrophy, and dementia. Mutant α-synuclein, as well as increased α-synuclein levels due to gene duplication, can cause PD. OXPHOS dysfunction and excessive ROS generation have been linked to PD (Schapira et al., 1990;
Yeast Models in Dividing Cells
Yeast models of α-synucleinopathies consist of overexpression of mutant or wild-type forms of α-synuclein (
Yeast Models in Non-dividing Cells
Whereas studies in growing cells have provided valuable mechanistic and physiological insight into α-synuclein toxicity, they need to be complemented with studies in non-dividing yeast cells to explore how α-synuclein toxicity modulates aging and vice versa. Of the neurodegenerative diseases, PD has been the most extensively studied using yeast models and the CLS assay. Of these studies, four have explored the effects of α-synuclein overexpression using different expression systems. The earliest of these studies, by
In another study, Sampaio-Marques et al. (2012) explored α-synuclein-induced toxicity in the CLS assay using a Tet-On system to induce wild-type α-synuclein expression during exponential growth, the diauxic shift, or the stationary phase of the CLS, and then continued following the yeast life span. Overexpression of α-synuclein was found to be toxic when induced at all stages of growth, but CLS, evaluated through CFU, was shortened most significantly when α-synuclein was induced starting in the stationary phase. These results indicate that aged cells may be particularly vulnerable to high levels of α-synuclein. Interestingly, when α-synuclein was induced at day 0 of the stationary phase, post-exponential phase and diauxic shift, and autophagy was inhibited using the pharmacological drug chloroquine, yeast CLS was greatly extended past that of cells overexpressing α-synuclein alone. However, a chloroquine-only treatment group without α-synuclein expression was not included, making this result difficult to interpret, as autophagy may play a significant role in the survival of wild-type cells in the CLS assay as well. As found by
Two more recent studies have explored exogenous modulators on α-synuclein toxicity. First, a small study by
Most recently, a study by
Synphilin-1
In addition to α-synuclein, additional proteins that have been implicated in PD have been studied using the CLS assay. One of these proteins is Synphilin-1, a known interactor of α-synuclein that was first found using a yeast two-hybrid screen.
Interestingly, while studying this protein,
Human DJ-1 Protein
It is also known as PD protein 7 and a member of the DJ-1 superfamily of proteins. DJ-1 has been previously shown to inhibit the aggregation of α-synuclein (Shendelman et al., 2004) and mutations in human DJ-1 have been implicated in a form of autosomal recessive early-onset parkinsonism (
Mutations in PRKN or PARK2
The coding for the protein Parkin, have been also associated with an autosomal recessive form of juvenile PD (
Familial Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
Mutations in the Gene SOD1
The coding for the mostly cytosolic form of the Cu–Zn superoxide dismutase, was one of the first genetic causes of familial ALS to be discovered, thus the effects of the deletion and overexpression of the SOD1 protein and SOD1 mutants have been a general research focus and have also been studied using the CLS assay. Across species, mitochondria contain a small fraction of SOD1 in the intermembrane space (Sturtz et al., 2001) and a matrix-located Mn-SOD known as SOD2 (
As mentioned earlier, although SOD1 is synthesized in the cytosol, a ∼5% fraction of SOD1 and its copper chaperone Ccs1 are transported into the mitochondria to mature within the mitochondrial intermembrane space (Sturtz et al., 2001). Overexpression of the copper chaperone for SOD1, CCS, was found to increase the mitochondrial localization of the SOD1 protein, and notably, yeast cells in which mitochondrial SOD1 was enriched had extended CLS compared to yeast in which SOD1 was expressed without this mitochondrial enrichment (Sturtz et al., 2001). These results suggest that minimizing mitochondrial ROS generation is essential to maintain wild-type life span, although because multiple reports have also documented ROS signaling during exponential growth phase that promotes stress resistance that subsequently extends CLS (
Senataxin (SETX)
SETX, which plays a vital role in maintaining RNA transcriptome homeostasis, is an RNA helicase implicated in two neurodegenerative disorders. Dominantly inherited mutations were identified in rare juvenile-onset, motor neuron disease pedigrees in a familial form of ALS (ALS4), whereas recessive mutations were found to cause a severe early-onset ataxia with oculomotor apraxia (AOA2) that is the second most common recessive ataxia after Freidreich’s ataxia (
TAR DNA-Binding Protein 43 (TDP-43)
It is associated with a spectrum of neurodegenerative diseases, including ALS. TDP-43 has been shown to bind both DNA and RNA and have multiple functions in transcriptional repression, pre-mRNA splicing and translational regulation (Sephton et al., 2011). Yeast overexpressing human TDP-43 protein has been used to model dementia and motor neuron disorders, including ALS, in which this protein has been discovered in inclusion bodies. In this yeast model, expression of TDP-43 or TDP-43 mutants was driven by a galactose-inducible promoter on a low-copy-number plasmid, resulting in an intermediate level of expression when induced. In dividing cells, it has been shown that TDP-43 turnover and toxicity depend in part upon the endocytosis pathway (
Other Neurological Disorders
A handful of other neurological disorders have also been modeled in yeast and studied using the CLS assay.
Friedreich Ataxia
Friedreich ataxia is a hereditary autosomal recessive disease that causes severe neurological dysfunction (Rotig et al., 1997). The disease is caused by lowered expression of the human mitochondrial protein frataxin, which is conserved in yeast. In all organisms, frataxin plays an essential role in iron homeostasis and therefore in critical mitochondrial functions such as heme biosynthesis and iron–sulfur cluster assembly (Rotig et al., 1997).
Niemann–Pick Type C (NPC)
Loss of function mutations in human NPC1 cause the rare, but very severe neurodegenerative disorder called Niemann–Pick type C (NPC). Human NPC1 and its yeast homolog Ncr1 are sphingolipid transporters that localize to vacuole membrane and to the ER. The yeast ncr1 deletion strain has been studied in the CLS assay. Yeast lacking Ncr1 display a premature aging phenotype (cells grown in standard synthetic media at 26°C) and higher sensitivity to oxidative stress associated with mitochondrial dysfunction and accumulation of long-chain bases (Vilaca et al., 2014). Importantly, deletion of the ceramide-activated protein phosphatases Pkh1, Sit4 and its activator cdc55 suppressed ncr1-deletion phenotypes but downregulation of de novo sphingolipid biosynthesis had no protective effect, suggesting that long-chain bases accumulation and shorten CLS may result from an increased turnover of complex sphingolipids (Vilaca et al., 2014, 2018).
Cathepsin D-Related Diseases
The loss of human protein cathepsin D has been linked to several neurodegenerative disorders. Cathepsin D is a protease required for efficient lysosomal protein breakdown, calcineurin signaling, and endosomal sorting (
Gene Expression Systems and CLS Models
Inducible Gene Expression Systems: Advantages and Limitations
To date, most inducible yeast models of (gain of function) neurodegenerative diseases have been created by heterologous expression of human genes under the control of the strong GAL1 promoter, which is activated by galactose and repressed by glucose. Although these models have provided a significant amount of information, the lack of regulation of expression levels, generally resulting in high levels of expression, often leads to acute toxicity. These acute effects can be advantageous when screening for drugs or genetic suppressors of cytotoxicity but are not the ideal system for analyzing metabolic or physiological disturbances leading to cytotoxicity. Additionally, gene expression under the control of a galactose-inducible promoter introduces a metabolic constraint, since gene expression is induced upon transferring the cells to media containing 2% galactose, which is a fermentable carbon source. This system would prevent studies in non-fermentable, respiratory conditions that can be relevant to the study. For example, the use of metabolism-independent inducers would allow for the study of cell toxicities in situations in which the cells are forced to exclusively respire, creating a better model of the highly oxidative neuronal metabolism. Besides, the use of metabolism-independent inducers allows studies in non-dividing post-mitotic cells using the yeast stationary phase model of aging or CLS (Sinclair et al., 1998), the focus of this manuscript. As explained in the previous sections, in this post-mitotic state, energetic dependence on mitochondrial respiration and concomitant ROS production highly resemble the situation in which neuronal cells age.
To create refined inducible yeast models of neurodegenerative disorders, researchers have tested several systems (Table 2). Sampaio-Marques and colleagues used a Tet-On inducible system to study how age traits potentiate the cytotoxic effects of α-synuclein. In these models, α-synuclein expression was induced from a Tet-On promoter in different phases of yeast growth (exponential, diauxic, or stationary) and CLS was then determined (Sampaio-Marques et al., 2012). The Tet-on system is highly regulatable although tend to be leaky. Importantly, even at low concentrations, the inducer of the system, tetracyclines, are known inhibitors of mitochondrial translation and can therefore provoke mitochondrial proteotoxic stress, leading to changes in nuclear gene expression and altered mitochondrial dynamics and function, which will introduce a confounding variable in experimental settings (
Table 2
| Promoter | Description/induction | Properties | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| CUP1pr | CUP1 codes for metallothionein, a protein that binds copper and mediates resistance to high concentrations of copper and cadmium ( – Induction with Copper (0 to 2 mM CuSO4) | – Tight regulation – Weak promoter – Copper may add toxicity, in combination to expression of toxic proteins. | |
| GAL1pr | – Induction by galactose (usually 2%) – Gratuitous induction can be achieved in a Δgal1 strain, in which galactose metabolism is deactivated. Cell can be grown in the presence of any carbon source supplemented with low doses of galactose. | – Strong expression – Gratuitous induction is highly regulatable (0.01 and 0.1% galactose are sufficient to induce expression) | |
| Tet-On promoter | Induction by doxycycline (2 μg/ml) | – Highly regulatable – Basal activity may be significant (leaky promoter). – Doxycycline is a potential mitochondrial translation inhibitor. | Sampaio-Marques et al., 2012 |
| GAL4.ER.VP16 transactivator plus GAL1pr | Induction by β-estradiol (5–100 nM) | – Highly regulatable – Expression can be achieved in multiple growth conditions. – To prevent toxicity caused by excess VP16, it is necessary to use weak constitutive promoters (e.g., attenuated TEF1-7pr) for the expression of the GAL4.ER.VP16 transactivator. – A galactose-independent LexA-ER-VP6 β-estradiol –inducible system can be used as an alternative ( |
Inducible gene expression systems used for the construction of yeast models of neurodegeneration.
Regulated promoters enable control over the timing and level of gene expression, which is an essential feature to consider for the generation of yeast models of neurodegeneration. They are suitable when expression of genes is desired at a specific stage of cell growth, or to prevent the build-up of cytotoxic effects induced by the protein being expressed. The table lists the inducible expression systems so far used for the generation of yeast models of neurodegeneration, and briefly describe their advantages and drawbacks.
In our laboratory, we have focused on modeling HD, based on the expression of polyQ domains of normal and pathological length under the control of different promoters, to test for their advantages and drawbacks. We tested the CUP1 promoter, two different β-estradiol-inducible GAL1 promoter systems and the GAL1 promoter in a Δgal1 mutant background (
Alternative Culture Models for the Study of Chronological Life Span
In the classical CLS assays, the age-dependent viability of non-dividing cells is estimated in conditions that involved starvation of exogenous nutrients and reliance on storage carbohydrates, glycogen and trehalose (
Concluding Remarks
Yeast models of neurodegenerative disorders have traditionally used rapidly dividing cells and expression of human disease genes. Although some disease genes are conserved along evolution, some of those responsible for age-associated neurodegenerative disorders are restricted to vertebrates. While many features of the disease cannot be modeled in yeast (e.g., neuron type specificity or loss of function activities), yeast models have proven to provide a robust paradigm for the elucidation of pathways leading to cell death upon deletion or overexpression of conserved genes, or upon heterologous expression of human disease genes. The refinement of yeast models by the incorporation of neurotoxic gene expression controlled by metabolism-independent promoters has allowed the study of neurotoxic proteotoxicity in non-dividing yeast using the CLS model of aging. Although relatively few studies using the yeast CLS model are found so far in the literature, they are expected to exponentially increase as they can be a source of information regarding the chronology of physiological events leading to neurotoxic proteotoxicity-induced cell death and the identification of new pathways involved. Importantly, the yeast CLS model has been instrumental for the identification of pathways that modulate life span in yeast and higher organisms. Therefore, inducible yeast models of neurodegeneration in the context of CLS will allow testing whether and how life span modulators (e.g., nutrient-sensing and stress-resistance pathways) postpone the physiological effects and cell death induced by neurotoxic proteins.
Statements
Author contributions
All authors listed have made a substantial, direct and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.
Funding
This work was supported by a Research grant from The Army Research Office (ARO) # W911NF-16-1-0311 (to AB), a Merit award from the Veterans Administration (VA-) Biomedical Laboratory Research and Development 1I01BX003303-01 (to AB) and an HD Human Biology Project Fellowship from the Huntington’s Disease Society of America (HDSA) # GR009606 (to AR).
Acknowledgments
We thank Julia Denissova for her help with the construction of Table 1.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
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Summary
Keywords
inducible yeast model, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, chronological life span, neurodegenerative disorder, mitochondria, proteotoxicity, reactive oxygen species
Citation
Ruetenik A and Barrientos A (2018) Exploiting Post-mitotic Yeast Cultures to Model Neurodegeneration. Front. Mol. Neurosci. 11:400. doi: 10.3389/fnmol.2018.00400
Received
08 June 2018
Accepted
12 October 2018
Published
02 November 2018
Volume
11 - 2018
Edited by
Ralf J. Braun, University of Bayreuth, Germany
Reviewed by
Per Olov Ingvar Widlund, University of Gothenburg, Sweden; Dina Petranovic, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
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Copyright
© 2018 Ruetenik and Barrientos.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Antonio Barrientos, abarrientos@med.miami.edu
Disclaimer
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.