Architecture and evolutionary stability of yeast signaling pathways

I have researched the effect that selection for the function of the High Osmolarity Glycerol (HOG) pathway has on the evolutionary stability of the pheromone response pathway in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. I first set out to demonstrate that, because the pheromone and HOG response pathways share protein components, selection for HOG function will enrich a population for cells capable of pheromone response. I performed experiments in both continuous and batch culture to demonstrate this effect. I then characterized the decay of the pheromone response pathway first, by measuring its mutation rate and second, by measuring the fitness of a series of strains with pheromone response gene deletions. I conclude with thoughts on possible experiments that may be used to further this research.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Biology.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Gritton, Jeffrey S

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Drew Endy.

• Biology.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/37258

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/37258