Abstract 2045 A role for autophagy in freeze-thaw stress survival

While the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is well studied and has been a workhorse of biomedical research for a long time, there are aspects of its biology that we still do not fully understand, for example its ability to readily survive freeze-thaw stress, an ability that we rely on to maintain and curate yeast strains in the lab. Our research aims to determine if the cellular process known as autophagy is a contributor to cells surviving freeze-thaw stress. Autophagy is a process in which eukaryotes are able to recycle damaged and unneeded materials to ensure survival in times of stress such as starvation. There is evidence in the literature showing that cells that have been starved are more likely to survive freeze-thaw stress, however, this has never been directly tested. This study has compared the survival of wild type and two different autophagy mutants in yeast cells following freeze-thaw stress. The results indicate that cells deficient in autophagy exhibit enhanced sensitivity to freeze-thaw stress. We thank Goucher College for funding the research.