Age-correlated stress resistance improves fitness of yeast: support from agent-based simulations.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Resistance to stress is often heterogeneous among individuals within a population, which helps protect against intermittent stress (bet hedging). This is also the case for heat shock resistance in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Interestingly, the resistance appears to be continuously distributed (vs. binary, switch-like) and correlated with replicative age (vs. random). Older, slower-growing cells are more resistant than younger, faster-growing ones. Is there a fitness benefit to age-correlated stress resistance?

Results

Here this hypothesis is explored using a simple agent-based model, which simulates a population of individual cells that grow and replicate. Cells age by accumulating damage, which lowers their growth rate. They synthesize trehalose a

SUBMITTER: Hellweger FL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3927587 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature