Yeast Life & the Nobel Prize

[milehimark]

I recently heard on NPR of the 2009 Nobel prize winner in physiology. Apparently they found a key to preventing aging and cell degeneration. One of their first experiments was using yeast. I'm wondering if we are coming upon the age where we can quadruple the life of yeast strains. Does anyone have any geeky insight about this issue?

[brewinhard]

Haven't heard of this, but do know that many scientists believe that aging has something to do with telomere length on the ends of chromosomes continually getting shortened each time a cell divides. They have been working on trying to figure out why the telomere continues to get smaller after each division. Seems as though yeast would be a great organism for this research as they bud offspring so quickly during their growth phase.

[Chupa LaHomebrew]

Great, just what we need, people to live longer
My friend is working on his PhD in biochemistry, and he told me that they work a lot with yeast. I guess it's just a great media for working with DNA and chromosomes.

[Brew Dad]

Why they get small is easy. Telomeres are basically the DNA equivalent to those plastic caps on the ends of shoe-laces. Replicating DNA is an inherently messy process that fails to copy the very end of the DNA strand. To counteract this the repeating "junk DNA" code known as telomeres evolved as a sacrificial cap and, ideally, the enzyme Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase is supposed to rebuild it back to 100% levels after each replication. The problem is... it doesn't. It's close, but after a while you run out of telomerase and start losing actually needed DNA sequences.

This won't, however, greatly affect the "lifespan" of brewing strains as that is a function of replication mutations. While telomerase plays a part in preventing some mutations, they're only a small part. We're also not really concerned with the lifespan of any one cell as brewers, but of the strain as a whole. The strains don't ever really die of old age, but they will continue to evolve their flavors. Sorry, no luck here.

But hey, at least they might figure out a way to let your sorry ass live forever.

/endnerd

[milehimark]

I thought it would be worth a shot to see if this research would help us brewers. Thanks guys for your great insight. I also remember hearing about another experiment on Science Friday where scientists were able make "DNA triggers" and got the yeast to flocculate after X amount of time. It gives some pleasure to know that brewers can potentially the first beneficiaries of scientific breakthroughs.

[PseudoChef]

Us scientists work with yeast a lot because it is easy to transform and has a quick reproduction cycle. I'm sure work is being done with yeast in the brewer's spectrum, but in most science circles, when you see that they work with yeast, it's mainly just because it's a model organism, not because they're trying to improve the yeast itself.

[brewinhard]

Model organism or not, I sure am glad they convert my maltose into alcohol! YEAHHH BABY!