Heat shock stimulates genomic instability and phenotypic variations in yeast

Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been widely used as a model system for studying genomic instability. In this study, heat-shock-induced genomic alterations were explored in the heterozygous diploid yeast strain JSC25-1. In combination of the whole-genome microarray, the patterns of chromosomal instability induced by heat shock could also be explored at a whole genome level. Using this system, we found heat-shock treatment resulted in hundreds-fold higher rate of genomic alterations, including aneuploidy and loss of heterozygosity (LOH).