Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Publication Date

Spring 5-15-2022

Abstract

Plate reader-based methods for high-throughput measurement of growth rate, cellular survival, and chronological lifespan are a compelling addition to the already powerful toolbox of budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae genetics. These methods have overcome many of the limits of traditional yeast biology techniques, but also present a new bottleneck at the point of data-analysis. Herein, we describe SPOCK (Survival Percentage and Outgrowth Collection Kit), an R-based package for the analysis of data created by high-throughput plate reader based methods. This package allows for the determination of chronological lifespan, cellular growth rate, and survival in an efficient, robust, and reproducible fashion. To further explore a gene associated with aging, Gcn4, RNA-seq was applied to determine expression level changes and genes with a high differential expression level based on p-values were selected and analyzed using chronological lifespan and SPOCK. Based on this exploration a new gene was discovered, YDR149C that had an impact on CLS in S. cerevisiae.

Document Type

Thesis

Language

English

Degree Name

Biomedical Sciences

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program

First Committee Member (Chair)

Dr. Mark McCormick

Second Committee Member

Dr. Natalie Adolphi

Third Committee Member

Dr. WC Hines (Curt)

Fourth Committee Member

Dr. Tudor Oprea

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