Sodium chloride stress inhibits Saccharomyces paradoxus meiosis

Meiosis is a common response to nutrient deprivation in yeasts. Our goal was to determine whether the yeast Saccharomyces paradoxus performed meiosis under other abiotic stress factors, specifically salt stress. We predicted that S. paradoxus meiosis would increase in the presence of salt because osmotic stress activates the IME1 transcription factor in its model yeast relative S. cerevisiae . Contrary to our prediction, the sporulation rate of S. paradoxus decreased as salinity increased. We hypothesize that this is due to salt inhibiting mitochondrial function, but more studies are needed to determine the cause.