Progress towards genetic engineering of an EMF-responsive plasmid in yeast

Despite the many epidemiological studies which have shown some effects of EMF on biological systems, there has yet to be any data that indicates the molecular mechanisms by which this effect takes place. My goal was to genetically engineer a yeast strain that would have a clear biological effect to the EMF's. The strategy involved using a yeast strain which requires histone function from a plasmid, and the plasmid construct that has a Gal1 promoter controlling the histone function. The plasmid construct could then be engineered to contain a promoter sequence for a known EMF-repressed gene in yeast, which would control the histone production. Without a functional histone gene, the cells will die, and the effects will be easily visualized. Although the genetic screening for the desired transformants appeared to work, the molecular analysis of those transformants did not show the promoter insertion. There are a few possible reasons for why this happened, including possible reversions from one of the original mutations of the chromosomal histone H4 genes, or the mutation of the Gal1 promoter which would no longer repress the histone H4 gene and allow the cells to grow on glucose.