Lithium and Growth

[Fred Kippert]

Hi Namjin!

Lithium it is definitely toxic to yeast. In Schizosaccharomyces pombe 
action is on inositol-1-phosphate monophosphatase: overexpression of 
the human IMP gene makes fission yeast largely resistant to lithium. 
The effect is even stronger with a variant which is less inhibited 
by lithium.

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the situation is somewhat uncertain. 
Serrano's group has reported that in their strains lithium acts on an 
enzyme in the methionine biosynthetic pathway, and toxicity can be 
counteracted by supplementation of methionine. However, this does not 
work with my strains of Saccharomyces (also in Schizosaccharomyces, 
addition of methionine is without effect). 

Regards

Fred Kippert
_____________________________________


Fred Kippert
Institute of Cell, Animal and Population Biology
University of Edinburgh
West Mains Road
Edinburgh EH9 3JT
Scotland, UK

Tel      0131 650 5488
FAX     0131 650 6564
e.mail   fkippert at srv0.bio.ed.ac.uk