Biophysics

Does life necessarily lead to old age and death?

April 4, 2009.

Lecturer

IVA MARIJA TOLIĆ-NØRRELYKKE, Ph.D.
Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany

Date and time

Tuesday, April 14, 2009 at 1:00 PM

Location

Lecture Hall, Wing I, Ruđer Bošković Institute, Bijenička 54, Zagreb

Abstract

Aging and death have fascinated humans since ancient times. However, it is still unclear whether all living organisms are subject to aging. There are a number of model organisms in which aging can be studied, including single-celled organisms such as bacteria and baker's yeast. In single-celled organisms, aging is manifested by cells that have undergone multiple divisions dividing more slowly than cells that have divided less. Aging is thought to be beneficial because it helps the survival of a population by causing older cells to “sacrifice” themselves by taking on cellular “garbage,” which eventually causes them to die, while their young daughter cells are born clean with maximum potential for growth and division. Research on aging is hampered by the lack of counterexamples, organisms that manage to avoid aging. We followed individual cells of the yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe as they grow and divide and constructed their family tree. Our results show that this yeast does not undergo aging. In doing so, we have identified the first potentially immortal organism. Organisms that do not age probably use a different life strategy, where population survival does not depend on the sacrifice of part of the population, but on efficient regeneration at the level of individual cells.

*Colloquium of the Croatian Biophysical Society

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