Physiological effects of increasing hydrostatic pressure in yeast

Abstract

There have been growing interests in understanding microbial lives under deep-sea high-pressure environments as well as biological responses to changes in hydrostatic pressure. While molecular adaptation to high-pressure environments has been extensively analyzed in various marine prokaryotes, little is known about eukaryotic microbes in deep-sea environments. To establish the molecular basis for piezoadaptation, we have introduced advanced techniques of yeast cell biology into high-pressure research using Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and propose a research field “piezophsiology”. This paper presents phenomena occurred in yeast cells at high pressure.