Daughter cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae from old mothers display a reduced life span

The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae typically divides asymmetrically to give a large mother cell and a smaller daughter cell. As mother cells become old, they enlarge and produce daughter cells that are larger than daughters derived from young mother cells. We found that occasional daughter cells were indistinguishable in size from their mothers, giving rise to a symmetric division. The frequency of symmetric divisions became greater as mother cells aged and reached a maximum occurrence of 30% in mothers undergoing their last cell division. Symmetric divisions occurred similarly in rad9 and ste12 mutants. Strikingly, daughters from old mothers, whether they arose from symmetric divisions or not, displayed reduced life spans relative to daughters from young mothers. Because daughters from old mothers were larger than daughters from young mothers, we investigated whether an increased size per se shortened life span and found that it did not. These findings are consistent with a model for aging that invokes a senescence substance which accumulates in old mother cells and is inherited by their daughters.     

Aging and senescence of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has a limited life span, defined by the number of times an individual cell divides. Longevity in this organism involves a genetic component. Several morphological and physiological changes are associated with yeast aging and senescence. One of these, an increase in generation time with age, provides a 'biomarker' for the aging process. This increase in generation time has revealed the operation of a 'senescence factor(s)', which is likely to be a product of age-specific gene expression. The Cell Spiral Model indicates coordination of successive cell cycles to be inherent in the determination of life span. It is proposed that life expectancy depends on the function of a stochastic trigger during aging that sets in motion a programme leading to cell senescence and death.     

Symmetric cell division in pseudohyphae of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Laboratory strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae are dimorphic; in response to nitrogen starvation they switch from a yeast form (YF) to a filamentous pseudohyphal (PH) form. Time-lapse video microscopy of dividing cells reveals that YF and PH cells differ in their cell cycles and budding polarity. The YF cell cycle is controlled at the G1/S transition by the cell-size checkpoint Start. YF cells divide asymmetrically, producing small daughters from full-sized mothers. As a result, mothers and daughters bud asynchronously. Mothers bud immediately but daughters grow in G1 until they achieve a critical cell size. By contrast, PH cells divide symmetrically, restricting mitosis until the bud grows to the size of the mother. Thus, mother and daughter bud synchronously in the next cycle, without a G1 delay before Start. YF and PH cells also exhibit distinct bud-site selection patterns. YF cells are bipolar, producing their second and subsequent buds at either pole. PH cells are unipolar, producing their second and subsequent buds only from the end opposite the junction with their mother. We propose that in PH cells a G2 cell-size checkpoint delays mitosis until bud size reaches that of the mother cell. We conclude that yeast and PH forms are distinct cell types each with a unique cell cycle, budding pattern, and cell shape.     

Decline of poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation during in vitro senescence in human diploid fibroblasts

Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase activity was determined at various times during the in vitro life span of two human diploid fibroblast-like cell lines of different donor ages. The cell lines differed in their ability to transfer ADP-ribose, with cells from an embryonic donor exhibiting 2 to 3 times the activity found in cells obtained from a newborn donor. The activity in both cell lines decreased by 30-60% as the cells moved through their in vitro life spans. The decline could not be attributed to increases in glycohydrolase or the leakage of polymerase from older cell preparations. Enzyme activation with DNase I indicated that similar levels of enzyme were present in both cell lines at all in vitro ages. These results indicate that although poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation is inversely related to donor age as well as in vitro age the decrease is in response to other factors which change with increasing age.     

2-micron circle plasmids do not reduce yeast life span

Extrachromosomal rDNA circles (ERCs) and recombinant origin-containing plasmids (ARS-plasmids) are thought to reduce replicative life span in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae due to their accumulation in yeast cells by an asymmetric inheritance process known as mother cell bias. Most commonly used laboratory yeast strains contain the naturally occurring, high copy number 2-micron circle plasmid. 2-micron plasmids are known to exhibit stable mitotic inheritance, unlike ARS-plasmids and ERCs, but the fidelity of inheritance during replicative aging and cell senescence has not been studied. This raises the question: do 2-micron circles reduce replicative life span? To address this question we have used a convenient method to cure laboratory yeast strains of the 2-micron plasmid. We find no difference in the replicative life spans of otherwise isogenic cir⁺ and cir⁰ strains, with and without the 2-micron plasmid. Consistent with this, we find that 2-micron circles do not accumulate in old yeast cells. These findings indicate that naturally occurring levels of 2-micron plasmids do not adversely affect life span, and that accumulation due to asymmetric inheritance is required for reduction of replicative life span by DNA episomes.     

A mutation in the ATP2 gene abrogates the age asymmetry between mother and daughter cells of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae reproduces by asymmetric cell division, or budding. In each cell division, the daughter cell is usually smaller and younger than the mother cell, as defined by the number of divisions it can potentially complete before it dies. Although individual yeast cells have a limited life span, this age asymmetry between mother and daughter ensures that the yeast strain remains immortal. To understand the mechanisms underlying age asymmetry, we have isolated temperature-sensitive mutants that have limited growth capacity. One of these clonal-senescence mutants was in ATP2, the gene encoding the beta-subunit of mitochondrial F(1), F(0)-ATPase. A point mutation in this gene caused a valine-to-isoleucine substitution at the ninetieth amino acid of the mature polypeptide. This mutation did not affect the growth rate on a nonfermentable carbon source. Life-span determinations following temperature shift-down showed that the clonal-senescence phenotype results from a loss of age asymmetry at 36 degrees, such that daughters are born old. It was characterized by a loss of mitochondrial membrane potential followed by the lack of proper segregation of active mitochondria to daughter cells. This was associated with a change in mitochondrial morphology and distribution in the mother cell and ultimately resulted in the generation of cells totally lacking mitochondria. The results indicate that segregation of active mitochondria to daughter cells is important for maintenance of age asymmetry and raise the possibility that mitochondrial dysfunction may be a normal cause of aging. The finding that dysfunctional mitochondria accumulated in yeasts as they aged and the propensity for old mother cells to produce daughters depleted of active mitochondria lend support to this notion. We propose, more generally, that age asymmetry depends on partition of active and undamaged cellular components to the progeny and that this "filter" breaks down with age.     

Changes in reactive oxygen species begin early during replicative aging of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells

Increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) are a feature of aging cells, but little is known about when ROS generation begins as cells age. Here we show how ROS change in Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells throughout their early replicative life span using the fluorescent ROS indicator dihydroethidium (DHE), which has some specificity for the superoxide anion. Cells in a particular age range were heterogeneous with respect to their ROS burden. Surprisingly, some cells as young as 5-7 generations acquired a greatly increased level of ROS detected by DHE relative to virgin cells. By 12 generations 50% of cells had a substantial ROS burden despite being only halfway through their life span. In contrast to the wild type, cells of a sir2 mutant had lower levels of ROS reacting with DHE. Daughters from older mothers had low ROS levels, and this asymmetric distribution of ROS was SIR2-independent. Mitochondrial fragmentation also began to occur in cells after 4 generations and increased markedly as cells aged. Daughter cells regenerated normal tubular mitochondria despite the fragmentation of mitochondria in the mother cells, whereas daughters of the sir2 mutant had fragmented mitochondria at all ages.     

Generation times of bacteria.

Random delays in cell division lead to correlations between the generation times of mothers and their daughters and to a difference between the 'real' and the 'artificial' distributions of generation times. At present there is no satisfactory relation between the two distributions although both are useful in the analysis of growth. In a special case, it is shown that they are similar as long as the coefficient of variation of generation times is small.     

Prolongation of the yeast life span by the v-Ha-RAS oncogene

The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has a finite life span that is defined by the number of times the cell divides. The patterns of expression of certain genes change in a specific manner during the life span, implying that at least some of the manifestations of the ageing process are subject to gene regulation. It has now been determined that the controlled expression of the RAS oncogene in yeast increases the longevity of this organism, indicating that, conversely, a defined alteration in the activity of a single gene can extend this organism's life span. The results suggest that there is a balance between life-span extension and growth arrest when RAS is expressed. Inasmuch as the homologues of RAS in yeast function to integrate cell metabolism with the cell cycle, these studies raise the possibility that this integrative function may also apply to the co-ordination of successive cell cycles during the life span.     

Effects of establishing cell cultures and cell culture conditions on the proliferative life span of human fibroblasts isolated from different tissues and donors of different ages

It is well known that normal human cells placed in a culture environment exhibit a limited proliferative capacity. The extent to which the culture environment influences proliferative life span is not understood. This study evaluated the effects of the standard procedures used to establish and maintain cultures on the proliferative life spans of different types of human fibroblast cells established from fetal and adult skin and lung. The results of this study demonstrate that procedures to establish cell cultures use only one of several subpopulations of cells present in biopsy pieces and that the culture conditions routinely employed by most laboratories can exert significant effects on proliferative life-span determinations. The maximum proliferative life span differed significantly when obtained by growing the cells in two commonly used commercial media. Proliferative life span was inversely related to ambient oxygen tension and directly related to seeding density in all of the lines examined although lines established from adult skin were much more resistant to toxicity. Enzymatic antioxidant defense levels of fetal skin fibroblasts were much lower than those observed in adult skin fibroblasts, but the effects of oxygen on their life spans were similar. Hyperoxia induced larger increases in glutathione concentration in cell lines with low antioxidant enzyme levels.     

Relationship between the replicative age and cell volume in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Reaching the limit of cell divisions, a phenomenon referred to as replicative aging, of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae involves a progressive increase in the cell volume. However, the exact relationship between the number of cell divisions accomplished (replicative age), the potential for further divisions and yeast cell volume has not been investigated thoroughly. In this study an increase of the yeast cell volume was achieved by treatment with pheromone alpha for up to 18 h. Plotting the number of cell divisions (replicative life span) of the pheromone-treated cells as a function of the cell volume attained during the treatment showed an inverse linear relationship. An analogous inverse relationship between the initial cell volume and replicative life span was found for the progeny of the pheromone-treated yeast. This phenomenon indicates that attaining an excessive volume may be a factor contributing to the limitation of cellular divisions of yeast cells.     

Yeast mother cell-specific ageing, genetic (in)stability, and the somatic mutation theory of ageing

Yeast mother cell-specific ageing is characterized by a limited capacity to produce daughter cells. The replicative lifespan is determined by the number of cell cycles a mother cell has undergone, not by calendar time, and in a population of cells its distribution follows the Gompertz law. Daughter cells reset their clock to zero and enjoy the full lifespan characteristic for the strain. This kind of replicative ageing of a cell population based on asymmetric cell divisions is investigated as a model for the ageing of a stem cell population in higher organisms. The simple fact that the daughter cells can reset their clock to zero precludes the accumulation of chromosomal mutations as the cause of ageing, because semiconservative replication would lead to the same mutations in the daughters. However, nature is more complicated than that because, (i) the very last daughters of old mothers do not reset the clock; and (ii) mutations in mitochondrial DNA could play a role in ageing due to the large copy number in the cell and a possible asymmetric distribution of damaged mitochondrial DNA between mother and daughter cell. Investigation of the loss of heterozygosity in diploid cells at the end of their mother cell-specific lifespan has shown that genomic rearrangements do occur in old mother cells. However, it is not clear if this kind of genomic instability is causative for the ageing process. Damaged material other than DNA, for instance misfolded, oxidized or otherwise damaged proteins, seem to play a major role in ageing, depending on the balance between production and removal through various repair processes, for instance several kinds of proteolysis and autophagy. We are reviewing here the evidence for genetic change and its causality in the mother cell-specific ageing process of yeast.     

Involvement of Drosophila Sir2-like genes in the regulation of life span

In Drosophila melanogaster, the Sir2 gene and four Sir2-like genes have been found to be homologous to yeast SIR2 genes. To examine whether the fly Sir2, CG5216, and two Sir2-like genes, CG5085 and CG6284, affect life span, we suppressed their expression using RNAi. Decreased expression of the Sir2 and Sir2-like genes in all cells caused lethality during development. Suppression of the Sir2 in neurons and ubiquitous silencing of the Sir2-like genes shortened life spans. The effects were severer at 28 degrees C than at 25 degrees C. These results suggest that Sir2-like genes as well as Sir2 are involved in the regulation of life span in Drosophila.     

Cell cycle phases in the unequal mother/daughter cell cycles of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

During cell division in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae mother cells produce buds (daughter cells) which are smaller and have longer cell cycles. We performed experiments to compare the lengths of cell cycle phases in mothers and daughters. As anticipated from earlier indirect observations, the longer cell cycle time of daughter cells is accounted for by a longer G1 interval. The S-phase and the G2-phase are of the same duration in mother and daughter cells. An analysis of five isogenic strains shows that cell cycle phase lengths are independent of cell ploidy and mating type.     

Involvement of anti-Ig-activated serine protease in the generation of cytoplasmic factor(s) that are responsible for the transmission of Ig-receptor-mediated signals.

Involvement of serine protease-activation in the generation of cytoplasmic factor(s) that induced NHP-specific protein kinase activity in nuclei in anti-Ig-stimulated cells was described. DFP or PMSF with anti-Ig inhibited the induction of cytoplasmic factor(s), whereas pretreatment of cells with DFP or PMSF without anti-Ig did not show any inhibitory effect on anti-Ig-induced generation of cytoplasmic factor(s). TAME or BAME with anti-Ig inhibited the generation of cytoplasmic factor(s) and the simultaneous addition of TAME or BAME with DFP protected the generation of cytoplasmic factor(s) against the inhibitory effect of DFP, showing the involvement of trypsin-like, arginine-type serine protease in anti-Ig-induced generation of cytoplasmic factor(s). Anti-Ig-stimulated membrane preparations induced cytoplasmic factor(s) in normal cytoplasm. The m.w. of precursor proteins present in resting B cells and active cytoplasmic factor(s) were approximately 150,000 and 45,000, respectively. These results showed that anti-Ig-activated membrane-bound serine protease split precursor proteins in resting B cells into active cytoplasmic factor(s) responsible for signal transmission.     

Cell longevity and sustained primary growth in palm stems

Longevity, or organismal life span, is determined largely by the period over which constituent cells can function metabolically. Plants, with modular organization (the ability continually to develop new organs and tissues) differ from animals, with unitary organization (a fixed body plan), and this difference is reflected in their respective life spans, potentially much longer in plants than animals. We draw attention to the observation that palm trees, as a group of monocotyledons without secondary growth comparable to that of lignophytes (plants with secondary growth from a bifacial cambium), retain by means of sustained primary growth living cells in their trunks throughout their organismal life span. Does this make palms the longest-lived trees because they can grow as individuals for several centuries? No conventional lignophyte retains living metabolically active differentiated cell types in its trunk for this length of time, even though the tree as a whole can exist for millennia. Does this contrast also imply that the long-lived cells in a palm trunk have exceptional properties, which allows this seeming immortality? We document the long-life of many tall palm species and their inherent long-lived stem cell properties, comparing such plants to conventional trees. We provide a summary of aspects of cell age and life span in animals and plants. Cell replacement is a feature of animal function, whereas conventional trees rely on active growth centers (meristems) to sustain organismal development. However, the long persistence of living cells in palm trunks is seen not as evidence for unique metabolic processes that sustain longevity, but is a consequence of unique constructional features. This conclusion suggests that the life span of plant cells is not necessarily genetically determined.     

Measuring Replicative Life Span in the Budding Yeast

Aging is a degenerative process characterized by a progressive deterioration of cellular components and organelles resulting in mortality. The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been used extensively to study the biology of aging, and several determinants of yeast longevity have been shown to be conserved in multicellular eukaryotes, including worms, flies, and mice ¹. Due to the lack of easily quantified age-associated phenotypes, aging in yeast has been assayed almost exclusively by measuring the life span of cells in different contexts, with two different life span paradigms in common usage ². Chronological life span refers to the length of time that a mother cell can survive in a non-dividing, quiescence-like state, and is proposed to serve as a model for aging of post-mitotic cells in multicellular eukaryotes. Replicative life span, in contrast, refers the number of daughter cells produced by a mother cell prior to senescence, and is thought to provide a model of aging in mitotically active cells. Here we present a generalized protocol for measuring the replicative life span of budding yeast mother cells. The goal of the replicative life span assay is to determine how many times each mother cell buds. The mother and daughter cells can be easily differentiated by an experienced researcher using a standard light microscope (total magnification 160X), such as the Zeiss Axioscope 40 or another comparable model. Physical separation of daughter cells from mother cells is achieved using a manual micromanipulator equipped with a fiber-optic needle. Typical laboratory yeast strains produce 20-30 daughter cells per mother and one life span experiment requires 2-3 weeks.Open in a separate windowClick here to view.^{(75M, flv)}     

Genomic instability is associated with natural life span variation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Increasing genomic instability is associated with aging in eukaryotes, but the connection between genomic instability and natural variation in life span is unknown. We have quantified chronological life span and loss-of-heterozygosity (LOH) in 11 natural isolates of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We show that genomic instability increases and mitotic asymmetry breaks down during chronological aging. The age-dependent increase of genomic instability generally lags behind the drop of viability and this delay accounts for approximately 50% of the observed natural variation of replicative life span in these yeast isolates. We conclude that the abilities of yeast strains to tolerate genomic instability co-vary with their replicative life spans. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first quantitative evidence that demonstrates a link between genomic instability and natural variation in life span.     

Generational differences in selenium status of women

In this cross-sectional study of three generations of women, daughters (19–26 yr), mothers (40–58 yr) and maternal grandmothers (67–84 yr) from the same 10 families in central Ohio were studied to determine the effect of life-cycle differences, including estrogen status, on selenium status. Plasma and red blood cell (RBC) selenium and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activities were determined and typical dietary selenium intakes were calculated from food-frequency questionnaires. Selenium status was lowest in the oldest generation. Plasma selenium of daughters and grandmothers were significantly lower than those of mothers, and plasma GPx and RBC selenium of grandmothers were also lower than those of the mothers. A positive correlation (r=0.42, p<0.04) was found between plasma estrogen and plasma selenium concentrations. Selenium intakes of all groups were adequate and no differences in selenium intakes were found among groups. The results of this study indicate that selenium status fluctuates during the female life cycle and is related to estrogen status.