yEvo: A Yeast Evolution Lab for Budding Biologists
Additional Funding Sources
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation Award Nos. 1818368 and 093945 and a grant from the UI Office of Undergraduate Research.
Presentation Date
7-2020
Abstract
Evolution is a constant occurrence in populations of all organisms, where a selective pressure helps to change an organism. This can often be seen in microbes developing resistance to antibiotics that they are exposed to. It is an important biological concept that can be difficult for students to grasp. To assist with teaching this subject a yeast evolution experiment was developed that also doubled as a research project. The observations that students make help them to see evolution as it occurs in yeasts and the yeasts that they evolve are used to study the mechanisms of azole resistance. In this project, biology classes in multiple high schools grow Saccharomyces cerevisiae, brewer's yeast, in a growth media with a fungicide to observe if they could evolve these yeasts in the selective pressure of fungicide to be resistant. For the wrap up project they attempt to see whose yeast evolved the strongest resistance by competing all the groups' samples against each other. The yeasts' genomes were then sequenced to see what genes had mutations to determine the mechanisms of azole resistance. In the future we hope to include the students in the sequencing data analysis to expose them to DNA analysis.
yEvo: A Yeast Evolution Lab for Budding Biologists
Evolution is a constant occurrence in populations of all organisms, where a selective pressure helps to change an organism. This can often be seen in microbes developing resistance to antibiotics that they are exposed to. It is an important biological concept that can be difficult for students to grasp. To assist with teaching this subject a yeast evolution experiment was developed that also doubled as a research project. The observations that students make help them to see evolution as it occurs in yeasts and the yeasts that they evolve are used to study the mechanisms of azole resistance. In this project, biology classes in multiple high schools grow Saccharomyces cerevisiae, brewer's yeast, in a growth media with a fungicide to observe if they could evolve these yeasts in the selective pressure of fungicide to be resistant. For the wrap up project they attempt to see whose yeast evolved the strongest resistance by competing all the groups' samples against each other. The yeasts' genomes were then sequenced to see what genes had mutations to determine the mechanisms of azole resistance. In the future we hope to include the students in the sequencing data analysis to expose them to DNA analysis.