Yeast studies on ageing

Published on May 31, 2016   40 min

Other Talks in the Series: Aging

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0:00
My name is Michal Jazwinski, I'm at Tulane University, and today, I will be discussing yeast studies on ageing.
0:09
During this talk, I will present a brief history of yeast ageing research and how this work contributed to the understanding that genes play a major role in ageing. I will discuss three concepts that arose from early studies of ageing using yeast as a model. I will then show how these concepts to encompass the role of mitochondria in ageing, the phenomenon of age asymmetry as a cell quality control mechanism, the impact of epigenetic regulation of gene expression on ageing, and the importance of genome stability in ageing. This talk will end with a juxtaposition of two different models of ageing that are widely used replicated lifespan and chronological lifespan. The impact of nutrient limitation on ageing is an obvious element of consideration here. Finally, the relevance of examination of the impact of natural genetic variation on yeast ageing will be considered.
1:02
In 1959, Mortimer and Johnston published a brief letter with one figure showing that individual yeast cells divide a limited number of times. They are mortal. Later, this finite life span of dividing yeast cells became known as the Replicated Life Span, or RLS for short. Interestingly, only two years later in 1961, Hayflick and Morehead showed that normal diploid human fibroblasts have a limit to their population doubling levels, another example of a finite replicative life span. The finding of Hayflick and Morehead immediately drew much attention because it contested long-held beliefs.