3 ms·
> The team used yeast cells for its research – specifically looking at the 'Ras' gene family, a family of genes that is present in all animal cells, including h
by Krabbey 9y ago
> The team used yeast cells for its research – specifically looking at the 'Ras' gene family, a family of genes that is present in all animal cells, including human cancer cells.
Hmm.. So they could have used any opisthokont's cells for a model, but they chose a fungus, a type of organism that travels readily in the environment as micrometer-sized spores and on even forms yeast, a zoomorphism which just so happens to match the growth and feeding patterns of cancer.. makes sense.
- tamcap 9y agoThey chose yeast because a lot of the basic eukaryotic biology is conserved (as compared to humans) and it's basically free to grow more yeast quickly. This means you can run your experiments super fast. Conversely, the above has resulted in a big number of yeast trained molecular biologists, who end up applying yeast work wherever they can (see: law of the instrument). Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.