Regulation of Yeast Life Span by Autophagy Related Genes

Abstract

Aging can be defined as a gradual and progressive deterioration of the health by the time which elevates the risk of death. Autophagy is a conserved pathway from yeast to mammals, which is defined as a catabolic bulk degradation pathway. However, in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, autophagy is defined as single cell’s adaptation to starvation. There is an emerging link between autophagic pathway and life span determination, however the roles of individual Autophagy Related Genes (ATG) in cellular aging have not been elucidated. In this study, we investigated the replicative and chronological life span of 32 yeast deletion mutants lacking the genes of autophagic machinery. We identified six mutants (atg7Δ, atg17Δ, atg27Δ, lap4Δ, atg12Δ, atg14Δ) with shorter replicative life span and four mutants (ccz1Δ, atg10Δ,atg15Δ and fbp1Δ) with shorter chronological life span.Our data suggest involvement of several new ATG mutants in life span determination.