# CELL SENESCENCE IN SACCHAROMYCES CEREVISIAE

> **NIH NIH R01** · MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY · 1993 · $165,980

## Abstract

The broad aims of this proposal are to study aging, senescence, and cell
death in a simple microbial organism that is amenable to genetic
analysis.  Yeast may be an excellent model system for these studies,
because many aspects of cell biology are conserved down to a mechanistic
level in many eukaryotes, including yeast and mammals.  The budding
yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, divide asymmetrically, giving rise to a
large mother cell and a small daughter cell at each cell division.
Mother cells have a fixed life span, i.e. give rise to a fixed number of
daughters.  These daughters reset to a normal full life span.  Further,
mother cells exhibit morphological changes as they age notably, cell
enlargement.  Finally, senescent mother cells may undergo a program of
cell death similar to apoptosis in mammalian cells.

Four aspects of the aging process will be studied in budding yeast,
First, the fixed life span of mothers will be investigated.  Mutants in
which mothers give rise to many more daughters than do wild type mothers
will be isolated ("long lived mutants").  Second, the ability of
daughters to reset to a full life span will be studied.  Mutants in which
daughters do not reset will be isolated ("resetting mutants").  Third,
morphological changes that cells undergo as they age will be probed.
Mutants which do not undergo changes, such as cell enlargement as they
grow old, will be isolated.  Fourth, programmed cell death, or apoptosis,
will be analyzed.  Mutants that do not undergo morphological changes
associated with cell death will be isolated.  The genes identified in
these various genetic selections and screens will be cloned and
sequenced.  Functional relevance of these genes to aging, senescence, and
cell death in higher organisms will be evaluated.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 3123100
- **Project number:** 1R01AG011119-01
- **Recipient organization:** MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
- **SAM.gov UEI:** E2NYLCDML6V1
- **Principal Investigator:** LEONARD P GUARENTE
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1993
- **Award amount:** $165,980
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 1993-03-01 → 1997-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3123100

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 3123100, CELL SENESCENCE IN SACCHAROMYCES CEREVISIAE (1R01AG011119-01). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/3123100. Licensed CC0.

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