YEAST AS A MODEL ORGANISM FOR STUDYING THE ACTIONS OF DNA TOPOISOMERASE-TARGETED DRUGS

The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been exploited to inves tigate the cytotoxic mechanisms of drugs that target DNA topoisomerase s. This model organism has been used to establish eukaryotic DNA topoi somerase I or II as the cellular target of specific antineoplastic age nts, to define mutations in these enzymes that confer drug resistance and to elucidate the cellular factors that modulate cell sensitivity t o DNA topoisomerase-targeted drugs. These findings have provided valua ble insights into the critical activities of these enzymes and how per turbing their functions produces DNA damage and cell death. 0167-4781/ 98/$ - see front matter (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights rese rved.