When stressed by something such as a change to its environment, a cell reacts slowly or quickly in order to save its life. In yeast, this happens in a series of known reactions, but the dynamic of which had never been studied. It has now been done thanks to CNRS researcher Pascal Hersen and his American colleagues at Harvard University. After having developed a simple and innovative system, the scientists confirmed the hypothesis that beyond a certain frequency of stimulation, a yeast cell no longer responds to osmotic stress. The researchers from now on will be able to measure the speed of the reaction to this stress, and, above all, modify it by removing certain genes.

This work opens up a new understanding in living engineering. The idea is to build cells with innovative biological functions and in which the dynamics are controlled. The team’s results are published on line on the PNAS web site.

To learn more, please consult the CNRS press release (in French).