The molecular biology thread

[Edduck]

OK so if I don't start an official thread I suppose no one will ever discuss anything.....

Sooooooooo I might as well start with myself........

I am busy working on Saccharomyces cerevisiae (you know the one that makes your beer ) and specifically focusing on its methods of resistance to sulphur dioxide (SO2). SO2 is used as an antimicrobial agent when making wine and it basically kills off all the nasty wine spoilage microbes which would otherwise cause the wine to smell and taste bad...

So S. cerevisiae is relatively tolerant to SO2 and survives up to levels of about 250 mg/L SO2. The resistance mechanism of S. cerevisiae has been put down to a transmembrane bound protein SO2 transporter which actively transports SO2 out of the cell (genes name is SSU1 for anyone interested).

Now I am actually targeting another wine spoilage yeast called Brettanomyces bruxellensis which basically grows in the wine bottle after alcholic fermentation and makes the wine smile and taste like horse sweat..... This yeast is also relatively tolerant of SO2 and can also enter a state of dormancy when it is put under environmental stress (i.e. high ethanol levels, presence of SO2 etc) hence its ability to grow in bottled wine when the environment has settled down....

So now we are basically trying to figure out how Brettanomyces resists the antimicrobial effect....... ( and i just realised I might be bound by a non-disclosure agreement.... OOPS )

 

[Pitbull]

LOL!,

Then delete the thread

 

[Edduck]

nahhh i haven't given anything away, i was just coming to the juicy bit when i realised the above....

 

[porchrat]

Is the juicy bit an attempt to detect some sort of sequence similar to the SSU 1 found in S. cerevisiae?

Or are you looking away from genes and looking for the protein instead?

Just asking... I understand if you can't answer. We've all been there

Interesting study. Has some great real world applications unlike some of the stuff I ended up doing at university.

I haven't started yet (still doing some coursework) but If all goes according to plan I should start my Masters thesis later this year. Looking at Strep. pneumoniae vaccines and efficacies regarding cross reactivity in certain serotypes present in Africa. Don't know how much more I'm allowed to say though I'll need to check.

EDIT: I think I remember a lecturer mentioning these SO2 transporters in an undergrad lecture years and years ago but I can't be sure.

 

[Palimino]

I am busy working on Saccharomyces cerevisiae (you know the one that makes your beer ) and specifically focusing on its methods of resistance to sulphur dioxide (SO2). SO2 is used as an antimicrobial agent when making wine and it basically kills off all the nasty wine spoilage microbes which would otherwise cause the wine to smell and taste bad...

Some work on cures for cancer, others on life-saving vaccines or AIDS cures but those nasty wine spoilage microbes which cause the wine to smell and taste bad...that’s got to stop!

 

[porchrat]

Some work on cures for cancer, others on life-saving vaccines or AIDS cures but those nasty wine spoilage microbes which cause the wine to smell and taste bad...that’s got to stop!

LOL. Often funding is available for certain projects and not for others.

While I decided to focus on cancer (and to a far lesser extent HIV) growing our understanding the nature of these SO2 pumping transmembranous proteins and their associated genes is still important. Besides now I'm working on Strep. pneumoniae vaccines... not actually creating them but modelling the interactions. Edduck is actually doing the lab work, I just analyse it... seems pointless when you think about it but it is what I find interesting. I find the actual working in the lab part of research quite trying.