Yeast on drugs: Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a tool for anticancer drug research

The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is being widely used as a model for investigating fundamental processes relevant to all living organisms. Many of these processes are affected by genetic and epigenetic alterations in cancer such as cell cycle progression, DNA replication and segregation, maintenance of genomic integrity and stress responses. Therefore, yeast emerges as an attractive model for anticancer drug research. The genetic tractability of budding yeast, its ease of manipulation and the wealth of functional genomics tools available in this organism makes it ideal for genome-wide analysis of biological functions and chemical screenings. The present review will discuss some of the innovative advantages based on yeast genetics and genomics for antitumour drug target identification and drug discovery.