Heavy water causes yeast to build cell wall in overdrive

What is it about?

Researchers sometimes use D2O to label proteins to follow them as they go about their cellular business. Most often the cells are produced in the bacterium Escherichia coli, which adapts to D2O well. But some proteins must be produced in eukaryotic cells, like yeast–so it may be possible to make them in S. pombe cells carrying these mutations.

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Why is it important?

Fission yeast, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, grows poorly in D2O because D2O drives the one-celled organism to beef up its cell wall. Strains of S. pombe with mutations in the pathway responsible for this fortification grew in D2O just fine!