Environmental contamination by heavy metals such as cadmium, lead, mercury and the heavy metalloids arsenic and antimony has become a major health concern; yet, the mechanisms by which cells protect themselves are complex and poorly understood. In this project we address the question: what is the molecular basis for cellular tolerance to heavy metals? The work aims at identifying cellular targets and at elucidating cellular defence mechanisms by using the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism to provide valuable information on such mechanisms in higher eukaryotes.

Various tools of functional genomics will be employed in this project to achieve these aims; micro-array technology will be used to identify potential toxicity targets and defence genes while large-scale phenotype analysis will be performed with selected mutants lacking heavy metal-regulated genes. The role of known regulators that control signal transduction and gene expression in response to heavy metal exposure will also be analysed. With this ‘reverse genetics’ approach, we want to obtain a genomic view on the molecular requirements for cellular heavy metal tolerance.

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Supervisor

Phone: +46 31 773 2548;

E-mail: markus.tamas@gmm.gu.se

Prof. Stefan Hohmann,

Phone: +46 31 773 2595;

E-mail: hohmann@gmm.gu.se

"Statistical planning, analysis and bioinformatics tools in micro-array screenings, focusing on heavy metal stressed yeast cultures"