The molecular mechanisms that cause organismal aging are a topic of intense scrutiny and debate. Dietary restriction extends the life span of many organisms, including yeast, and efforts are underway to understand the biochemical and genetic pathways that regulate this life span extension in model organisms. Here we describe the mechanism by which dietary restriction extends yeast chronological life span, defined as the length of time stationary yeast cells remain viable in a quiescent state. We find that aging under standard culture conditions is the result of a cell-extrinsic component that is linked to the pH of the culture medium. We identify acetic acid as a cell-extrinsic mediator of cell death during chronological aging, and demonstrate that dietary restriction, growth in a non-fermentable carbon source, or transferring cells to water increases chronological life span by reducing or eliminating extracellular acetic acid. Other life span extending environmental and genetic interventions, such as growth in high osmolarity media, deletion of SCH9 or RAS2, increase cellular resistance to acetic acid. We conclude that acetic acid induced mortality is the primary mechanism of chronological aging in yeast under standard conditions. IntroductionAll living systems undergo physiologic decline with age, and aging in humans is a non-modifiable risk factor for the development of many diseases. Despite decades of study and many recent advances, there has yet to emerge a consensus regarding the primary molecular cause(s) of aging. Free radical-induced oxidative damage, telomere erosion, secretion of factors by senescent cells, depletion of stem cells, mitochondrial dysfunction, DNA mutation, genomic instability, epigenetic changes and proteotoxicity have all been proposed as causal factors in aging. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] None of these has yet been demonstrated as a primary cause of aging in people.The best characterized molecular mechanism of aging in any organism is the accumulation of extrachromosomal rDNA circles (ERCs) in yeast mother cells, which is one contributing cause of replicative aging in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. 8 ERCs are formed by homologous recombination between adjacent rDNA repeats, and mutations that reduce rDNA recombination, such as deletion of FOB1 or overexpression of SIR2, can increase replicative life span. 9,10 ERCs do not appear to cause aging in non-dividing yeast cells (referred to as chronological aging), 11 and there is no evidence that aging in multicellular eukaryotes is influenced by ERCs. Thus, ERCs are likely to be a private mechanism of replicative aging in budding yeast and related organisms.Dietary restriction (DR), defined by a reduction in nutrient availability without malnutrition, has been demonstrated to increase life span in evolutionarily divergent organisms, including yeast, nematodes, fruit flies and rodents. 12,13 The mechanism(s) by which DR promotes longevity remain unknown, although recent studies have suggested that the nutrient-responsive target of rapamycin (TOR) k...

SUMMARY Many genes that affect replicative lifespan (RLS) in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae also affect aging in other organisms such as C. elegans and M. musculus. We performed a systematic analysis of yeast RLS in a set of 4,698 viable single-gene deletion strains. Multiple functional gene clusters were identified, and full genome-to-genome comparison demonstrated a significant conservation in longevity pathways between yeast and C. elegans. Among the mechanisms of aging identified, deletion of tRNA exporter LOS1 robustly extended lifespan. Dietary restriction (DR) and inhibition of mechanistic Target of Rapamycin (mTOR) exclude Los1 from the nucleus in a Rad53-dependent manner. Moreover, lifespan extension from deletion of LOS1 is non-additive with DR or mTOR inhibition, and results in Gcn4 transcription factor activation. Thus, the DNA damage response and mTOR converge on Los1-mediated nuclear tRNA export to regulate Gcn4 activity and aging.

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, 59 of the 78 ribosomal proteins are encoded by duplicated genes that, in most cases, encode identical or very similar protein products. However, different sets of ribosomal protein genes have been identified in screens for various phenotypes, including life span, budding pattern, and drug sensitivities. Due to potential suppressors of growth rate defects among this set of strains in the ORF deletion collection, we regenerated the entire set of haploid ribosomal protein gene deletion strains in a clean genetic background. The new strains were used to create double deletions lacking both paralogs, allowing us to define a set of 14 nonessential ribosomal proteins. Replicative life-span analysis of new strains corresponding to ORF deletion collection strains that likely carried suppressors of growth defects identified 11 new yeast replicative aging genes. Treatment of the collection of ribosomal protein gene deletion strains with tunicamycin revealed a significant correlation between slow growth and resistance to ER stress that was recapitulated by reducing translation of wild-type yeast with cycloheximide. Interestingly, enhanced tunicamycin resistance in ribosomal protein gene deletion mutants was independent of the unfolded protein response transcription factor Hac1. These data support a model in which reduced translation is protective against ER stress by a mechanism distinct from the canonical ER stress response pathway and further add to the diverse yet specific phenotypes associated with ribosomal protein gene deletions.T HE yeast ribosome consists of two subunits, the 40S (small) and 60S (large), which together contain four discrete rRNA species and 78 ribosomal proteins (RPs). In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, 59 of the 78 ribosomal proteins are encoded by a pair of paralogous genes, most of which arose through a genome-wide duplication event roughly 100 million years ago (Wolfe and Shields 1997). Only 12% of the duplicated genome remains, and of the paralogous gene pairs present, a majority of ribosomal proteins genes (RPGs) are in a class that exhibits little or even decelerated evolution (Kellis et al. 2004). Remarkably, 21 of the 59 RPG pairs encode identical proteins, and the others are highly similar (Supporting Information, Table S1). The prevalence of synthetic lethality among RPG paralogs indicates that the two protein products are generally redundant for at least one essential function (Dean et al. 2008).Despite the significant similarity among RPG paralogs, many reports have described differential effects of deleting only one, and such instances have been observed even in cases where the encoded protein product is identical (Briones et al. 1998). One explanation for this is that the two genes contribute different amounts of protein, and neither is alone sufficient to support wild-type growth. In the case of Rpl16, for example, expression of either RPL16A or RPL16B can rescue the growth defect of cells lacking RPL16B (Rotenberg et al. 1988). Consistently, the RPL16...

Aging is characterized by the accumulation of damaged cellular macromolecules caused by declining repair and elimination pathways. An integral component employed by cells to counter toxic protein aggregates is the conserved ubiquitin/proteasome system (UPS). Previous studies have described an age-dependent decline of proteasomal function and increased longevity correlates with sustained proteasome capacity in centenarians and in naked mole rats, a long-lived rodent. Proof for a direct impact of enhanced proteasome function on longevity, however, is still lacking. To determine the importance of proteasome function in yeast aging, we established a method to modulate UPS capacity by manipulating levels of the UPS–related transcription factor Rpn4. While cells lacking RPN4 exhibit a decreased non-adaptable proteasome pool, loss of UBR2, an ubiquitin ligase that regulates Rpn4 turnover, results in elevated Rpn4 levels, which upregulates UPS components. Increased UPS capacity significantly enhances replicative lifespan (RLS) and resistance to proteotoxic stress, while reduced UPS capacity has opposing consequences. Despite tight transcriptional co-regulation of the UPS and oxidative detoxification systems, the impact of proteasome capacity on lifespan is independent of the latter, since elimination of Yap1, a key regulator of the oxidative stress response, does not affect lifespan extension of cells with higher proteasome capacity. Moreover, since elevated proteasome capacity results in improved clearance of toxic huntingtin fragments in a yeast model for neurodegenerative diseases, we speculate that the observed lifespan extension originates from prolonged elimination of damaged proteins in old mother cells. Epistasis analyses indicate that proteasome-mediated modulation of lifespan is at least partially distinct from dietary restriction, Tor1, and Sir2. These findings demonstrate that UPS capacity determines yeast RLS by a mechanism that is distinct from known longevity pathways and raise the possibility that interventions to promote enhanced proteasome function will have beneficial effects on longevity and age-related disease in humans.

Summary Dietary restriction (DR) increases lifespan and attenuates age-related phenotypes in many organisms; however, the effect of DR on longevity of individuals in genetically heterogeneous populations is not well characterized. Here we describe a large-scale effort to define molecular mechanisms that underlie genotype-specific responses to DR. The effect of DR on lifespan was determined for 166 single-gene deletion strains in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Resulting changes in mean lifespan ranged from a reduction of 79% to an increase of 103%. Vacuolar pH homeostasis, superoxide dismutase activity, and mitochondrial proteostasis were found to be strong determinants of the response to DR. Proteomic analysis of cells deficient in prohibitins revealed induction of a mitochondrial unfolded protein response (mtUPR) which has not previously been described in yeast. Mitochondrial proteotoxic stress in prohibitin mutants was suppressed by DR via reduced cytoplasmic mRNA translation. A similar relationship between prohibitins, the mtUPR, and longevity was also observed in Caenorhabditis elegans. These observations define conserved molecular processes that underlie genotype-dependent effects of DR that may be important modulators of DR in higher organisms.