Identifying Drug Sensitivities in Fission Yeast by Assessing Growth Kinetics

Kinetic assays can detect growth response to changing conditions in fission yeast. This may allow the use of fission yeast in drug library screens. Building upon our other work to examine half-maximal inhibitory concentrations, kinetic curves show direct response of cell populations to varying drug concentrations and conditions. The slope is useful to assess growth rate. Absolute growth height can be used to understand overall culture response and compare between doses or strains. This can be paired with a metabolic screening reagent, CCK8, which detects dehydrogenase activity as a proxy for proliferation. These methods assess time-based changes in fission yeast health and provide inexpensive and high-content alternatives to colony-forming assays.