TY - JOUR
T1 - Saccharomyces cerevisiae - a model to uncover molecular mechanisms for yeast biofilm biology
AU - Bojsen, Rasmus Kenneth
AU - Andersen, Kaj Scherz
AU - Regenberg, Birgitte
PY - 2012/7
Y1 - 2012/7
N2 - Microbial biofilms can be defined as multi-cellular aggregates adhering to a surface and embedded in an extracellular matrix (ECM). The nonpathogenic yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, follows the common traits of microbial biofilms with cell-cell and cell-surface adhesion. S. cerevisiae is shown to produce an ECM and respond to quorum sensing, and multi-cellular aggregates have lowered susceptibility to antifungals. Adhesion is mediated by a family of cell surface proteins of which Flo11 has been shown to be essential for biofilm development. FLO11 expression is regulated via a number of regulatory pathways including the protein kinase A and a mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway. Advanced genetic tools and resources have been developed for S. cerevisiae including a deletion mutant-strain collection in a biofilm-forming strain background and GFP-fusion protein collections. Furthermore, S. cerevisiae biofilm is well applied for confocal laser scanning microscopy and fluorophore tagging of proteins, DNA and RNA. These techniques can be used to uncover the molecular mechanisms for biofilm development, drug resistance and for the study of molecular interactions, cell response to environmental cues, cell-to-cell variation and niches in S. cerevisiae biofilm. Being closely related to Candida species, S. cerevisiae is a model to investigate biofilms of pathogenic yeast.
AB - Microbial biofilms can be defined as multi-cellular aggregates adhering to a surface and embedded in an extracellular matrix (ECM). The nonpathogenic yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, follows the common traits of microbial biofilms with cell-cell and cell-surface adhesion. S. cerevisiae is shown to produce an ECM and respond to quorum sensing, and multi-cellular aggregates have lowered susceptibility to antifungals. Adhesion is mediated by a family of cell surface proteins of which Flo11 has been shown to be essential for biofilm development. FLO11 expression is regulated via a number of regulatory pathways including the protein kinase A and a mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway. Advanced genetic tools and resources have been developed for S. cerevisiae including a deletion mutant-strain collection in a biofilm-forming strain background and GFP-fusion protein collections. Furthermore, S. cerevisiae biofilm is well applied for confocal laser scanning microscopy and fluorophore tagging of proteins, DNA and RNA. These techniques can be used to uncover the molecular mechanisms for biofilm development, drug resistance and for the study of molecular interactions, cell response to environmental cues, cell-to-cell variation and niches in S. cerevisiae biofilm. Being closely related to Candida species, S. cerevisiae is a model to investigate biofilms of pathogenic yeast.
U2 - 10.1111/j.1574-695x.2012.00943.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1574-695x.2012.00943.x
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 22332975
SN - 0928-8244
VL - 65
SP - 169
EP - 182
JO - F E M S Immunology and Medical Microbiology
JF - F E M S Immunology and Medical Microbiology
IS - 2
ER -