Gene Expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae exposed at microwaves

This work is focused on the effects of microwaves at the frequency of 2.45 GHz, power density of 5mW/cm2 for 0, 10, 30 and 60 minutes exposure on Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain D7. The effects of microwaves on DNA damage have been evaluated as induction of gene conversion, mitochondrial mutation and reverse mutation. Gene expression profiles of microwaves-exposed yeast cells are studied with DNA microarrays containing the 6212 ORFs of yeast. After the exposure to the microwaves it has not been observed an increase in the frequency of any genetic endpoints analyzed relative to controls, but it has been shown some variation in gene expression profiles, especially after 60 min exposure. In particularly, it has been observed a down-regulation of pathway involved in nucleotides metabolism, ribosomal metabolism and translation initiation and elongation. These pathways seem to be involved in a general response of yeast to stress.