title: Growing old: metabolic control and yeast aging.
abstract: The metabolic characteristics of a yeast cell determine its life span. Depending on conditions, stress resistance can have either a salutary or a deleterious effect on longevity. Gene dysregulation increases with age, and countering it increases life span. These three determinants of yeast longevity may be interrelated, and they are joined by a potential fourth, genetic stability. These factors can also operate in phylogenetically diverse species. Adult longevity seems to borrow features from the genetic programs of dormancy to provide the metabolic and stress resistance resources necessary for extended survival. Both compensatory and preventive mechanisms determine life span, while epigenetic factors and the element of chance contribute to the role that genes and environment play in aging.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans 70112, USA. sjazwi@lsuhsc.edu
authors.forename: S Michal
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Jazwinski
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging; D005656:Fungal Proteins; D015966:Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal; D006706:Homeostasis; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology; D015398:Signal Transduction; D018631:ras Proteins / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D005656:Fungal Proteins; D018631:ras Proteins