The response of the melanized yeast Exophiala dermatitidis to gamma radiation exposure

The melanized yeast Exophiala dermatitidis is resistant to many environmental stresses, and is used as a model for understanding the diverse roles of melanin in fungi. To further our understanding resistance mechanism of E. dermatitidis to acute γ-radiation exposure and whether melanin plays a role in this process, we performed RNA-seq on WT and the melanin deficient mutant Δpks1 cultures exposed to γ-radiation at the dose of 1000 Gy, which resulted in ~50% cell deaths in both strains. We observed a dramatic transcriptomic response to γ-radiation that mobilizes pathways involved in morphological development, protein degradation, and DNA repair, and is unaffected by the presence of melanin. Examine transcriptomic profiles of E. dermatitidis wild type and pks1 mutant and their exposues to 1000 Gy gamma radiaiton