Mutations that modify cell proliferation in repeated stress

The research team of Gaël Yvert at Laboratory of Biology and Modeling of the Cell (LBMC) has discovered mutations that increase cell proliferation in conditions of repeated stress. Whether cells divide or not and generate new cells depends on their environment, which, usually, changes dynamically. Some environments are 'stressful' and cells need to adapt their physiology to face such conditions. This adaptive process is well-known when stress occurs once or twice, but not in situations where cells are challenged repeatedly. What happens then is unkown. In particular, the molecules that drive the dynamics of adaptation in an ever-changing environment are unknown. Scientists at LBMC have explored this situation experimentally by culturing yeast cells for several days and nights while changing their culture medium every three hours (about the time one cell needs to produce a daughter cell).