It's amazing to me that the tiny, one-celled yeast can be such a powerful research tool. Now geneticist Aaron Gitler, PhD, has shown that the diminutive organism can even help advance the understanding of Parkinson's disease and aid in identifying new genes involved in the disorder and new pathways and potential drug targets. He published his findings today in Neuron and told me in an email:
Parkinson's disease is associated with many genetic and environmental susceptibility factors. Two of the newest Parkinson's disease genes, EIF4G1 and VPS35, encode proteins involved in protein translation (the act of making protein from RNA messages) and protein sorting (shuttling proteins to the correct locations inside the cell), respectively. We used unbiased yeast genetic screens to unexpectedly discover a strong genetic interaction between these two genes, suggesting that the proteins they encode work together.
The proteins, EIF4G1 and VPS35, have changed very little from yeast to humans. Gitler and his colleagues showed that VPS35 interacts functionally with another protein implicated in Parkinson's disease, alpha-synuclein, in yeast, round worms and even laboratory mice. As Gitler described:
Together, our findings connect three seemingly distinct Parkinson's disease genes and provide a path forward for understanding how these genes might contribute to the disease and for identifying therapeutic interventions. More generally, our approach underscores the power of simple model systems for interrogating even complex human diseases.
Previously: Researchers pinpoint genetic suspects in ALS and In Stanford/Gladstone study, yeast genetics further ALS research
