Measuring S. cerevisiae attachment to surfaces by a shear
flow detachment assay.
Fang Li, Sean Palecek
Chemical Engineering, University of Wisconsin, 1415 Engineering Dr.,
Madison, WI 53706, USA
Adhesion via FLO11 regulates S. cerevisiae filamentous and
invasive growth. In addition, adhesion is thought to contribute to
virulence of pathogenic fungi. S. cerevisiae provides an
attractive model system for studying adhesion in fungi. We used a
parallel plate flow chamber to study cell detachment by shear stress
under conditions of laminar flow. The adherence of haploid srb8 and flo8
strains to polystyrene was tested and compared to the adherence of wild
type S. cerevisiae. Strains lacking SRB8 exhibited greater
adherence while strains lacking FLO8 adhered poorly to polystyrene even
under very low shear stress. The same result was found when the
polystyrene surface was coated with fibronectin. This method could be
used to identify genes encoding adhesins that mediate the binding of
yeast cells to various kinds of surfaces and to identify how adhesins
are regulated.
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