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In this study, the effect of different toxic chemicals on Saccharomyces cerevisiae's vacuoles was determined. More precisely, oxidative stress was mediated by pesticides and heavy metals, whereas nonoxidative stress influence was caused by the treatment with pharmaceuticals. Previously, oxidative stress was reported to alter yeast vacuolar enzymes, thus, intracellular vacuoles are assumed to be used as a biomarker to detect the oxidative stresses on yeast. Simultaneously, nonoxidative stress effect was expected to be recognized by vacuoles as well. The feasibility of toxic detection by vacuolar response was evaluated by confocal microscopy after staining the vacuoles with LysoTracker. The results indicate that each chemical has its own optimal concentration at which the signal corresponding to vacuolar response reached the peak without inhibiting the yeast growth. Therefore, this method was confirmed to detect toxic chemicals at their sub-lethal doses. In addition, the minimum response time of vacuoles for different toxic chemicals was also measured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lysosome is an organelle in the cell, commonly used as biomonitoring tool in environmental pollution. In previous studies, the lysosomal proteome profiling in yeast was analyzed in response to different toxic chemicals, such as sodium meta-arsenite and tetracycline. A recombinant yeast contained the specific biomarker found in the previous studies was constructed for toxic detection. We evaluated green fluorescent intensity of the recombinant yeast exposed to toxic chemicals with dose dependent using by a portable kit designed by our laboratory. The results confirmed the potential of both the yeast and the portable kit to detect each of toxic chemical such as heavy metals, pesticides, or pharmaceuticals at an optimal dose that the intensity of fluorescent protein reached peak at. Therefore, the recombinant yeast and portable kit play an important role to detect various toxic chemicals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]