4 replies to this topic

[revenant]

Care to comment? A link to the full text would be great.


http://www.sciencema...ba-852c217142a0

Abstract
Eukaryotic organisms age, yet detrimental age-associated traits are not passed on to progeny. How life span is reset from one generation to the next is not known. We show that in budding yeast resetting of life span occurs during gametogenesis. Gametes (spores) generated by aged cells show the same replicative potential as gametes generated by young cells. Age-associated damage is no longer detectable in mature gametes. Furthermore, transient induction of a transcription factor essential for later stages of gametogenesis extends the replicative life span of aged cells. Our results indicate that gamete formation brings about rejuvenation by eliminating age-induced cellular damage

[VidX]

WOuld make a wild guess: Maybe it's really "just" an epigenic "pattern" afterall? (and not the "damage" per say)..

[revenant]

A little more info here

[okok]

This points to an - besides apoptosis - active mechanism in cellular aging (see also http://www.longecity...vs-aging-damage). I'm not well read on this, but supposed the human equivalent switch is found, there probably will still be a lot of corollaries to untangle esp. if this is 'just' an epigenetic wipe resetting the hayflick limit (see http://www.scienceda...01122093345.htm implying the proteasome).

Edited by okok, 05 July 2011 - 03:24 PM.

[revenant]

some more info