Publication in PNAS: reduction in calories alone does not extend yeast lifespan
Calorie restriction has been advertised as the proverbial fountain of youth. Support for this believe comes from the observation that calorie restriction extends lifespan in a wide range of organisms, such as monkeys, mice and also the unicellular baker’s yeast. Especially in the latter organism, researchers have been eager to unravel the molecular mechanisms underlying the lifespan extending effect of calorie restriction.
However, researchers from the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science (Molecular Systems Biology group of the Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology and Statistics & Probability group of the Johann Bernoulli Institute) now report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) that the life span extending effect of calorie restriction may be solely due to an artifact of the 50-year old method that until recently was the sole method to determine life span in yeast cells.
Controversy
For their studies, the researchers from the Molecular Systems Biology group around Prof. Matthias Heinemann used a novel microfluidics-based technology to microscopically follow individual yeast cells during their entire lifespan. The new method does not only generate lifespan data in a less labor intensive manner, but also under more constant experimental conditions. Using the microfluidics-based setup the earlier reported life-span extending effect of calorie restrictions vanished suggesting that a reduction in calories alone does not extend yeast lifespan. This study, which will likely arise controversy in the yeast aging field, has already led to a first commentary in Science News .
More information
Contact: Prof. Matthias Heinemann
| Last modified: | 12 March 2020 9.49 p.m. |
More news
-
10 September 2025
Funding for Feringa and Minnaard from National Growth Fund project Big Chemistry
Two UG research projects have received funding from the National Growth Fund project Big Chemistry via NWO.
-
09 September 2025
The carbon cycle as Earth’s thermostat
Earth's natural carbon cycle becomes unbalanced if we, humans, continue to release extra carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. In this overview article about the carbon cycle, you can find out how Earth generally keeps itself in balance and how...
-
09 September 2025
Carbon dioxide’s fingerprint
In the year 2000, Harro Meijer, Professor of Isotope Physics at the University of Groningen, set up the Lutjewad Measurement Station near Hornhuizen. There, researchers from Groningen are mapping where CO2 in the atmosphere originates and where it...