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.
Qin
Hong
H
Center for Aging and Development Biology, Department of Biology, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, United States of America. hong.qin@tuskegee.edu
Lu
Meng
M
Goldfarb
David S
DS
D002875:Chromosomes / Q000648:ultrastructure; D015966:Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal; D016681:Genome, Fungal; D042822:Genomic Instability; D006579:Heterozygote; D019656:Loss of Heterozygosity; D008938:Mitosis; D008954:Models, Biological; D008957:Models, Genetic; D018384:Oxidative Stress; D051721:Rad52 DNA Repair and Recombination Protein / Q000737:chemistry; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000235:genetics*; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D013997:Time Factors
C497197:RAD52 protein, S cerevisiae; D051721:Rad52 DNA Repair and Recombination Protein; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins