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.