Dietary restriction and mitochondrial function link replicative and chronological aging in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Chronological aging of budding yeast cells results in a reduction in subsequent replicative life span through unknown mechanisms. Here we show that dietary restriction during chronological aging delays the reduction in subsequent replicative life span up to at least 23days of chronological age. We further show that among the viable portion of the control population aged 26days, individual cells with the lowest mitochondrial membrane potential have the longest subsequent replicative lifespan. These observations demonstrate that dietary restriction modulates a common molecular mechanism linking chronological and replicative aging in yeast and indicate a critical role for mitochondrial function in this process.