[Yeast as a model for studying neurodegeneration].

At the level of genetics and physiology the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is are the best characterized eukaryotic cells. The yeast cells can be used as a model to study the mechanisms involved in human disease. Yeast shares conserved cellular mechanisms with all eukaryotes including mammals and human. Nowadays, despite the lack of a neural system, yeasts are successfully used in the study of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. Exquisite genetics and molecular tools used in biology allow examination of the role of yeast homologues of human genes as well as heterologous expression of human genes in yeast. Yeasts have become a suitable model to study the causes of pathological changes in protein folding, mutations and formation of aggregates.