Research news
The systematic deletion of all yeast ORFs, in the Saccharomyces Genome Deletion Project, provides a powerful resource for large-scale 'parallel deletion analysis'. In the October 23 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Geoff Birrell and colleagues at Stanford University School of Medicine describe a screen for sensitivity to a genome-damaging agent (Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2001, 98:12608-12613). They screened pools of 4,627 deletion strains for killing by ultraviolet (UV) irradiation and used oligonucleotide arrays to follow radiation sensitivity. They identified 25 known UV-sensitive deletions and found three new genes not previously linked with UV sensitivity. Two of these, CaSm and AF9, have human orthologs implicated in cancer, demonstrating how such a powerful approach can provide important insights into the mechanism of cytotoxicity by genotoxic agents.
References
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[http://www-sequence.stanford.edu/group/yeast_deletion_project/deletions3.html] webcite
Saccharomyces Genome Deletion Project
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Quantitative phenotypic analysis of yeast deletion mutants using a highly parallel molecular bar-coding strategy.
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
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[http://www-med.stanford.edu] webcite
Stanford University School of Medicine



