Aequorin as a growth marker in yeast

Abstract

A yeast cell containing constitutively expressed aequorin and methods of using the cells in growth and toxicity assays are disclosed.

1 . A yeast cell comprising an aequorin-encoding deoxyribonucleic acid sequence expressibly linked to a constitutive yeast promoter.  
     
     
         2 . The yeast cell of  claim 1 , wherein the constitutive yeast promoter is the Triose Phosphate Isomerase promoter.  
     
     
         3 . The yeast cell of  claim 1 , further comprising an expressible heterologous protein-encoding deoxyribonucleic acid sequence.  
     
     
         4 . A method of measuring the growth rate of a yeast cell culture, the method comprising: 
 (a) providing a yeast cell comprising an aequorin-encoding deoxyribonucleic acid sequence expressibly linked to a constitutive yeast promoter,    (b) incubating the yeast cell, and    (c) measuring the amount of aequorin produced during the incubation.    
     
     
         5 . A method for determining growth-regulating or toxic effects of a compound on a yeast cell culture, the method comprising: 
 (a) providing a yeast cell comprising an aequorin-encoding deoxyribonucleic acid sequence expressibly linked to a constitutive yeast promoter,    (b) incubating the yeast cell with the compound,    (c) measuring the amount of aequorin produced during the incubation, and    (d) comparing the measured amount of aequorin produced with that amount of aequorin produced by a similar yeast culture incubated in the absence of the compound.