Yeast as a model system for anticancer drug discovery

Abstract

Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been used extensively as a model for higher eukaryotes in the study of basic cellular processes. The high degree of conservation in terms of sequence similarity and function has made this organism useful in elucidating biological pathways, both yeast and human. Among these are pathways responsible for DNA damage repair and cell cycle control. This review presents an overview of opportunities for using yeast as a model system for anticancer drug discovery. It covers screens directed against specific cancer-related targets as well as contexts created by cancer-related alterations. The methodologies covered include pharmacological and genetic screens, as well as genome-wide approaches to drug target identification.

• aneuploidy
• angiogenesis
• apoptosis
• cancer
• cyclin dependent kinases
• drug screens
• genomic instability
• mismatch repair
• model systems
• synthetic lethality
• target identification
• yeast