Microarray Analysis of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Exposed to Various Conditions

DNA microarrays offer the ability to produce genome-wide gene expression profiles, which can be used to identify genes that may play an active role in various biological processes. The well-studied organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae was used in an attempt to utilize DNA microarrays in order to examine the gene expression profiles of yeast exposed to varying conditions: aerobic versus anaerobic environments, glucose versus lactose media, weak versus dense cell cultures, and non-UV-C versus UV-C light exposure. After growth reached an optimum optical density, yeast cells in each culture were lysed and the RNA was isolated and transformed to cDNA. Finally, the cDNA was treated with a series of reagents (including fluorescent labels to mark cDNA from each environment) and washed to hybridize the cDNA to the microarray. The microarrays were then scanned and, had quantifiable results been obtained, these data would have been further examined with information technology in order to verify the expected expression patterns of genes involved in biological processes pertaining to each experimental condition. Although this first attempt at DNA microarray analysis did not yield analyzable results, RNA was successfully extracted and quantified from all cell cultures and the knowledge and understanding gained throughout the procedure will prove invaluable, especially when applied to future genomic explorations