Yeast on the corner of life and death decisions

Abstract

[Excerpt] Cells are continuously facing exogenous and endogenous stressful conditions that threaten cellular homeostasis and elicit numerous molecular responses, resulting either in cell adaptation and survival or in cell demise. Several interconnected genetically conserved molecular pathways control the adaptive responses, as well as the decision to commit suicide. Understanding this intricate network is often hampered by the complexity of higher eukaryotic systems. Since the initial sequencing and functional analysis of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome, yeast has become a superb model and toolbox to unravel conserved and non-conserved components of pathways underpinning cell survival and death decisions in eukaryotic cells, as well as dissect their functional interactions. Hence, yeast cells may offer answers for understanding how a cell recognizes and repairs damage, maintains homeostasis, or conversely fails to cope with stress and dies. This evidence is crucial to understand the biological basis of aging, life span determination, several age-related disorders and other human pathologies.[...]