Yeast for virus research

Budding yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and fission yeast (Schizosaccharomyces pombe) are two popular model organisms for virus research. They are natural hosts for viruses as they carry their own indige-nous viruses. Both yeasts have been used for studies of plant, animal and human viruses. Many p...

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Main Author: Richard Yuqi Zhao
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Shared Science Publishers OG 2017-09-01
Series:Microbial Cell
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Online Access:http://microbialcell.com/researcharticles/yeast-for-virus-research/
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author Richard Yuqi Zhao
author_facet Richard Yuqi Zhao
author_sort Richard Yuqi Zhao
collection DOAJ
description Budding yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and fission yeast (Schizosaccharomyces pombe) are two popular model organisms for virus research. They are natural hosts for viruses as they carry their own indige-nous viruses. Both yeasts have been used for studies of plant, animal and human viruses. Many positive sense (+) RNA viruses and some DNA viruses replicate with various levels in yeasts, thus allowing study of those viral ac-tivities during viral life cycle. Yeasts are single cell eukaryotic organisms. Hence, many of the fundamental cellular functions such as cell cycle regula-tion or programed cell death are highly conserved from yeasts to higher eu-karyotes. Therefore, they are particularly suited to study the impact of those viral activities on related cellular activities during virus-host interactions. Yeasts present many unique advantages in virus research over high eukary-otes. Yeast cells are easy to maintain in the laboratory with relative short doubling time. They are non-biohazardous, genetically amendable with small genomes that permit genome-wide analysis of virologic and cellular func-tions. In this review, similarities and differences of these two yeasts are described. Studies of virologic activities such as viral translation, viral replica-tion and genome-wide study of virus-cell interactions in yeasts are high-lighted. Impacts of viral proteins on basic cellular functions such as cell cycle regulation and programed cell death are discussed. Potential applications of using yeasts as hosts to carry out functional analysis of small viral genome and to develop high throughput drug screening platform for the discovery of antiviral drugs are presented.
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spelling doaj-art-8a57c728424647f7985dfcb9216f9cef2025-08-20T02:52:37ZengShared Science Publishers OGMicrobial Cell2311-26382017-09-0141031136410.15698/mic2017.10.592Yeast for virus researchRichard Yuqi Zhao0Department of Pathology, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Global Health, and Institute of Human Virology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA.Budding yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and fission yeast (Schizosaccharomyces pombe) are two popular model organisms for virus research. They are natural hosts for viruses as they carry their own indige-nous viruses. Both yeasts have been used for studies of plant, animal and human viruses. Many positive sense (+) RNA viruses and some DNA viruses replicate with various levels in yeasts, thus allowing study of those viral ac-tivities during viral life cycle. Yeasts are single cell eukaryotic organisms. Hence, many of the fundamental cellular functions such as cell cycle regula-tion or programed cell death are highly conserved from yeasts to higher eu-karyotes. Therefore, they are particularly suited to study the impact of those viral activities on related cellular activities during virus-host interactions. Yeasts present many unique advantages in virus research over high eukary-otes. Yeast cells are easy to maintain in the laboratory with relative short doubling time. They are non-biohazardous, genetically amendable with small genomes that permit genome-wide analysis of virologic and cellular func-tions. In this review, similarities and differences of these two yeasts are described. Studies of virologic activities such as viral translation, viral replica-tion and genome-wide study of virus-cell interactions in yeasts are high-lighted. Impacts of viral proteins on basic cellular functions such as cell cycle regulation and programed cell death are discussed. Potential applications of using yeasts as hosts to carry out functional analysis of small viral genome and to develop high throughput drug screening platform for the discovery of antiviral drugs are presented.http://microbialcell.com/researcharticles/yeast-for-virus-research/Saccharomyces cerevisiaeSchizosaccharomyces pombevirus-host interactionviral replicationcell cycle regulationprogramed cell deathgenome-wide analysishigh throughput drug screening
spellingShingle Richard Yuqi Zhao
Yeast for virus research
Microbial Cell
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Schizosaccharomyces pombe
virus-host interaction
viral replication
cell cycle regulation
programed cell death
genome-wide analysis
high throughput drug screening
title Yeast for virus research
title_full Yeast for virus research
title_fullStr Yeast for virus research
title_full_unstemmed Yeast for virus research
title_short Yeast for virus research
title_sort yeast for virus research
topic Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Schizosaccharomyces pombe
virus-host interaction
viral replication
cell cycle regulation
programed cell death
genome-wide analysis
high throughput drug screening
url http://microbialcell.com/researcharticles/yeast-for-virus-research/
work_keys_str_mv AT richardyuqizhao yeastforvirusresearch