Abstract 2478 Autophagy as a mechanism for freeze-thaw stress survival

Freeze-thaw stress is the stress cells undergo when they freeze due to exposure to low temperatures, resulting in the formation of ice crystals and, ultimately, damaged cellular components inside them.We do not yet fully understand the biological mechanisms in which cells recover from the damage caused by freeze-thaw stress.We hypothesize autophagy is involved in helping cells recover because of reports in other organisms, including Antarctic midge insects.Also, it has been shown that the Ras/cAMP pathway regulates both autophagy and the freeze-thaw stress response.In this study we aim to determine if autophagy is required for the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to survive freeze-thaw stress.We use different methods published in the literature to induce freezethaw stress and examine the survival rates of atg1D and atg5D yeast mutants compared to wildtype yeast after -20 C or -80 C freeze-thaw insults.Our data suggests that loss of autophagy compromises the ability of cells to survive freeze-thaw stress.