Development of convenient system for detecting yeast cell stress, including that of amyloid beta

Abstract

(1) Background: As a model eukaryote, the study of stress responses in yeast can be employed for studying human health and disease, and the effects of various drugs that may impact health. “Reporting” of stress in yeast has frequently utilised enzymes like β-galactosidase that require laborious assays for quantitative results. The use of a stress reporter that can be measured quantitatively and with high sensitivity in living cells in a multi-well plate reader is a more desirable approach; (2) Methods: A multi-copy yeast-Escherichia coli shuttle plasmid containing the HSP42 promoter upstream of the mCherry reporter, along with the URA3 selectable marker was constructed and tested; (3) Results: Under certain stress conditions inducing the heat shock response, transformants containing the plasmid produced red fluorescence that could be readily quantitated in a microtitre plate reader. Stresses that produced red fluorescence included exposure to heat shock, copper ions, oligomeric amyloid beta (Aβ42) and fibrillar Aβ42; (4) Conclusions: Being able to conveniently and quantitatively monitor stresses in whole live populations of yeast offers great opportunities to screen compounds and conditions that cause stress, as well as conditions that alleviate stress. While freshly prepared oligomeric amyloid beta has previously been shown to exhibit high toxicity, fibrils have been generally considered to be non-toxic or of low toxicity. In this study, fibrillar amyloid beta has also been shown to induce stress.