Accelerating the discovery of biologically active small molecules using a high-throughput yeast halo assay

The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a powerful model system for the study of basic eukaryotic cell biology, has been used increasingly as a screening tool for the identification of bioactive small molecules. We have developed a novel yeast toxicity screen that is easily automated and compatible with high-throughput screening robotics. The new screen is quantitative and allows inhibitory potencies to be determined, since the diffusion of the sample provides a concentration gradient and a corresponding toxicity halo. The efficacy of this new screen was illustrated by testing materials including 3104 compounds from the NCI libraries, 167 marine sponge crude extracts, and 149 crude marine-derived fungal extracts. There were 46 active compounds among the NCI set. One very active extract was selected for bioactivity-guided fractionation, resulting in the identification of crambescidin 800 as a potent antifungal agent.