Visible light alters yeast metabolic rhythms by inhibiting respiration.

ABSTRACT: Exposure of cells to visible light in nature or in fluorescence microscopy often is considered to be relatively innocuous. However, using the yeast respiratory oscillation (YRO) as a sensitive measurement of metabolism, we find that non-UV visible light has a significant impact on yeast metabolism. Blue/green wavelengths of visible light shorten the period and dampen the amplitude of the YRO, which is an ultradian rhythm of cell metabolism and transcription. The wavelengths of light that have the greatest effect coincide with the peak absorption regions of cytochromes. Moreover, treating yeast with the electron transport inhibitor sodium azide has similar effects on the YRO as visible light. Because impairment of respiration by light would change several state variables believed to play vi

SUBMITTER: Robertson JB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3876234 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature