Transcriptome Profile Alteration with Cadmium Selenide/Zinc Sulfide Quantum Dots in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Abstract

Quantum Dots (QDs) are becoming more prevalent in products used in our daily lives, such as TVs and laptops, due to their unique and tunable optical properties. The possibility of using QDs as fluorescent probes in applications, such as medical imaging, has been a topic of interest for some time, but their potential toxicity and long-term effects on the environment are not well understood. In the present study, we investigated the effects of yellow CdSe/ZnS-QDs on Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We utilized growth assays, RNA-seq, reactive oxygen species (ROS) detection assays, and cell wall stability experiments to investigate the potential toxic effects of CdSe/ZnS-QDs. We found CdSe/ZnS-QDs had no negative effects on cell viability; however, cell wall-compromised cells showed more sensitivity in the presence of 10 µg/mL CdSe/ZnS-QDs compared to non-treated cells. In CdSe/ZnS-treated and non-treated cells, no significant change in superoxide was detected, but according to our transcriptomic analysis, thousands of genes in CdSe/ZnS-treated cells became differentially expressed. Four significantly differentiated genes found, including FAF1, SDA1, DAN1, and TIR1, were validated by consistent results with RT-qPCR assays. Our transcriptome analysis led us to conclude that exposure of CdSe/ZnS-QDs on yeast significantly affected genes implicated in multiple cellular processes.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Oct 25, 2019
Source ID
10.3390/biom9110653

Entities

People

  • Chelsea Campbell
  • Cullen Horstmann
  • Daniel S Kim
  • Kyoungtae Kim

Organizations

  • United States Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Biology

Readers

  • Analytical Chemistry
  • Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry
  • Oncology (Cancer Research).

Technology Areas

  • Quantum Computing