Triplicate PCRs with gene-specific primer pairs for each gene were carried out as recommended by the manufacturer, using a quantitative real-time PCR machine (ABI PRISM®Sequence Detection System, Applied Biosystems) with analysis software learn more SDS2.2 (Applied Biosystems). Cell survival assay To measure chronological life span, cells were inoculated at initial OD600 of 0.02 in liquid EMM, and grown until OD600

reached the maximum value of about 8 to 9. From this time point (day 0), aliquots were taken daily and plated on complex (YES for auxotrophs and YE for prototrophs) solid medium, following appropriate dilutions to plate out similar number of cells. Cell colonies were counted after 3 to 4 days incubation at 30°C. The viable cell count at day 0 was regarded as 100% survival rate. For nutrient-specific starvation, cells grown to OD600 of 0.5 to 1 in liquid EMM were washed with sterile

distilled water, and resuspended in EMM without NH4Cl or EMM with 0.5% instead of 2% glucose. Following 24-hr further incubation at 30°C, cells were grown on solid YE medium to count colonies as described above. Stress sensitivity For oxidative stress, hydrogen peroxide (Fluka), superoxide generators paraquat (methyl viologen; sigma) and menadione (vitamin K3, non-salt form from ICN), and a thiol-specific oxidant diamide (sigma) were used. Heat was treated at 42°C (for cell viability) or 50°C (for transcriptional induction). All the acute stresses were applied to exponentially Acetophenone grown cells in liquid EMM (OD600 0.5-1) for 40 or 30 min (heat shock). The stress-treated A-1155463 concentration cells were spotted on EMM solid media for sensitivity analysis,

or harvested for RNA preparation to examine phx1 + induction. Sporulation assay Pairs of ED665 (h – ) and ED668 (h + ), as well as ESX5 (Δphx1, h – ) and ESX8 (Δphx1, h + ), were mated with each other on ME plate and incubated at 25°C for 2 days. Diploid cells were selected for the complementing markers on EMM. Following growth to the stationary phase in liquid EMM, the formation of asci that contain tetrad spores was examined by microscopy, following nuclear staining by DAPI. Three independent experiments were carried out to quantify the efficiency of ascus formation. At least 500 cells in each culture were counted. Acknowledgements This work was supported by NRL grant (NRF-2009-0079278) from NRF to JHR. JYK was the recipient of the graduate scholarship from the second-stage BK21 program for Life Sciences at Seoul National University. References 1. Gehring WJ: Homeo boxes in the study of development. Science 1987,236(4806):1245–1252.PubMedCrossRef 2. Banerjee-Basu S, Baxevanis AD: Molecular evolution of the homeodomain family of transcription factors. Nucleic Acids Res 2001,29(15):3258–3269.PubMedCrossRef 3. Zakany J, Duboule D: The role of Hox genes during vertebrate limb development. Curr Opin Genet Dev 2007,17(4):359–366.PubMedCrossRef 4.