Yeast genetic interaction screen of human genes associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: identification of MAP2K5 kinase as a potential drug target.

To understand disease mechanisms, a large-scale analysis of human-yeast genetic interactions was performed. Of 1305 human disease genes assayed, 20 genes exhibited strong toxicity in yeast. Human-yeast genetic interactions were identified by en masse transformation of the human disease genes into a pool of 4653 homozygous diploid yeast deletion mutants with unique barcode sequences, followed by multiplexed barcode sequencing to identify yeast toxicity modifiers. Subsequent network analyses focusing on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)-associated genes, such as optineurin (