Microarray data and gene expression statistics for Saccharomyces cerevisiae exposed to simulated asbestos mine drainage

Here we describe microarray expression data (raw and normalized), experimental metadata, and gene-level data with expression statistics from Saccharomyces cerevisiae exposed to simulated asbestos mine drainage from the Vermont Asbestos Group (VAG) Mine on Belvidere Mountain in northern Vermont, USA. For nearly 100 years (between the late 1890s and 1993), chrysotile asbestos fibers were extracted from serpentinized ultramafic rock at the VAG Mine for use in construction and manufacturing industries. Studies have shown that water courses and streambeds nearby have become contaminated with asbestos mine tailings runoff, including elevated levels of magnesium, nickel, chromium, and arsenic, elevated pH, and chrysotile asbestos-laden mine tailings, due to leaching and gradual erosion of massive piles of mine waste covering approximately 9 km(2). We exposed yeast to simulated VAG Mine tailings leachate to help gain insight on how eukaryotic cells exposed to VAG Mine drainage may respond in the mine environment. Affymetrix GeneChip® Yeast Genome 2.0 Arrays were utilized to assess gene expression after 24-h exposure to simulated VAG Mine tailings runoff. The chemistry of mine-tailings leachate, mine-tailings leachate plus yeast extract peptone dextrose media, and control yeast extract peptone dextrose media is also reported. To our knowledge this is the first dataset to assess global gene expression patterns in a eukaryotic model system simulating asbestos mine tailings runoff exposure. Raw and normalized gene expression data are accessible through the National Center for Biotechnology Information Gene Expression Omnibus (NCBI GEO) Database Series GSE89875 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?acc=GSE89875).