Roxanne Rajaii L&S Sciences
Selection of Dosage Suppressors for the Lack of Nuclear Pik1
Cell responses are mediated by signal transduction pathways that involve protein and lipid kinase cascades. One of the two essential PtdIns 4-kinases in the budding yeast (S. cerevisiae), encoded by the PIK1 gene, localizes both to the Golgi and in the nucleus and has an essential function in both compartments. Pik1 in the Golgi functions in regulating secretion from the Golgi to the cell surface, but the processes that Pik1 helps regulate in the nucleus are not well understood. In an effort to understand the essential role of Pik1 in the nucleus, I have proposed a selection for dosage suppressors of the lethal phenotype of cells that lack nuclear Pik1 activity. Dosage suppressors are genes that, when over-expressed, are able to rescue the viability of cells that lack an otherwise essential gene function. Identifying the protein products of such dosage suppressors may allow me to discern what role PtdIns4P production, specifically by Pik1, plays in the nucleus and what processes this lipid regulates
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