Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I changed the death rays experiment to use yeast instead of e. coli and now i cant find any sites that tell me how uva light affects yeast DNA PLEASE HELP ME!!!

Hi Kylea,

UV light has a universal effect on all living organisms, including yeast. It is high energy light that can damage DNA by breaking the double bonds. Here is a website that reviews the damage caused by UV light on all organisms:

http://www.nas.nasa.gov/About/Education ... ation.html

Yeast are one-celled plants. The type of yeast that is normally available in baker's yeast is white, but many wild-type yeasts are pigmented. The function of the pigments is protect the cells from UV damage. Does that give you any ideas for a project?

Here is a website that includes a basic experiment on this subject that you could adapt for a project.

http://www.scienceteacherprogram.org/bi ... hah04.html

Does this help? Let us know if you need more information.

Donna Hardy

Hi Kyleha,

Here is the Wikipedia article about yeast, which are single-celled fungi (same kingdom as mushrooms!): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeast. I find that Wikipedia is a good jumping off point for finding more information about any organism.

The project that Donna gave you (http://www.scienceteacherprogram.org/bi ... hah04.html) is a great place to start, especially because it's well laid out. I also found a summary from a previous California state science fair project looking at yeast and UV: http://www.usc.edu/CSSF/History/2004/Projects/S1316.pdf. Here is another project that looked at the effects of UV on the fermentation rate of yeast: http://www.selah.k12.wa.us/SOAR/SciProj ... iProj.html.

I hope these projects inspire you to make your own! Let us know if you have any more questions.

Good luck!

Heather