Institute of Microbiology and Biotechnology

The conference was opened by the lecture on “Molecular mechanisms and physiological role of autophagy”. The lecture was given by Prof. Yoshinori Ohsumi who is winner of Nobel Prize in medicine, 2016 for discovery of autophagy mechanisms. The conference was devoted on the fundamental as well as applied aspects of yeast genetics and molecular biology. Much of attention was devoted to the yeast as a model organism for elucidation of molecular machinery in cells as well evolution, molecular pathologies and biotechnological processes. Yeast cell physiology during nutrient starvations was among hot topics of the conference. Starvation is common event during yeast lifetime and causes a number of intracellular adaptive reactions and structural rearrangements, including cell cycle adjustments and differentiation. These reactions can be viewed as potential molecular predecessors for the evolutionary development of multicultural organism. More information on highlights of conference can be found at official conferences webpage www.yeast2017.cz and from tweets from Laboratory of yeast nutritional physiology (@530_telpa) and Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome database (@yeastgenome). Next ICYGMB event will be held in 2019, Gothenburg, Sweden. The research and participation in conference was supported by Latvian basic science grant no. ZD2016 AZ03 "Sustainable use of nature resources in the context of climate changes” and research performance grant No. AAP2016/B041. Zane Ozoliņa was supported by Laimiņu family scholarship and scientific grant from Student Council of University of Latvia.