Establishing a Model System to Study Human Chaperone Function in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Prions are an infectious class of misfolded proteins, characterized by their ability to self-propagate. Chaperones are helper proteins that can aid in the refolding of misfolded proteins, or protecting the growing nascent polypeptide chain from misfolding. Two important chaperone complexes in yeast are the Ribosome Associated Complex (RAC) and the Nascent Polypeptide-Associated Complex (NAC), which have been proven important to the process of protein folding. In humans, there also exists an ortholog of yeast RAC, which we hoped to observe in yeast. A model system was constructed in order to study human RAC chaperone function in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, as well as how different chaperone complexes in yeast like NAC and RAC interact with each other